On 17 June, the CBSE had submitted an assessment policy to tabulate the marks of class 12 students after both CBSE and ICSE (Indian Certificate of Secondary Education) cancelled Class 12 board exams this year due to COVID-19.
But the policy---brought out to ensure students have an aggregate set of marks to show for college admissions---has been variously opposed by parents' associations, teachers and students. They contend it is bound to cause further confusion and is "wholly arbitrary". The Supreme Court is slated to hear the case affidavit filed by UP Pradesh Parents Association, Lucknow, on 22 June. What does the assessment policy say that has led to objections?
The policy proposes to link the performance of the current batch of class 12 students with their past year's performance, with CBSE going back to marks obtained in Class 10 board exams and the ICSE proposing to take an average of the past six years. According to the tabulation policy devised by the CBSE board, the total theory marks will be based on differential weightage-- 40 per cent to class 12 marks, 30 per cent for class 11 and 30 per cent for class 10. The board does not want to rely entirely on unit tests, mid-term or pre-board exam results of the class 12 students in a pandemic year due to unequal access to digital infrastructure. Besides, it contends, online exams anyway don't qualify as standardized assessment. Hence the board wants to revert to standardized assessments of pre-COVID time.
But many highlight the problem with this line of thought.
"The proposed assessment policy is makeshift and quick-fix. It is overall lowering the expectations and outcomes from students," says Lucknow-based Sunita Gandhi, a noted educationist who is the founder of Global Classroom Private Limited (GCPL) and Global Education and Training Institute (GETI) " A lot of children do not take their class 11 seriously and they get perked up to class 12. A lot many also do not take their class 10 results seriously for they assume that class 12 boards are the most important exam for which they become much more serious. The 30-30-40 calculation prejudices the marks downward," says Gandhi who also runs an NGO for teaching kids called Devi Sansthan.
She points out another aspect of the policy that can lead to unfair outcomes. In the current version of the assessment policy, this year's average Class 12 marks in a school can't be more than 5 per cent of the historical average of the last three years. For example, if the school's average for grade 12 for the last three years was 75 per cent, this year's grade 12 results cannot be more than 80 per cent overall. "The batches differ. And if there's is a brand new batch better than the average intake of the last three years, the current batch will feel mortified. They will feel stuck by the school's previous years average," says Gandhi. She adds, however, that the good news is that CBSE boards have declared that there will be an examination allowed for those children who are not satisfied with their marks.
They have the option of taking it again between August 15 and September 15. "But the delay might affect university admissions. Maybe they will have the possibility of sending revised marks at a later stage," she says. CBSE will declare class 12 results by July 31 this year.
Dr Kavita, a senior teacher at Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya, Pooth Kalan, in Delhi is mostly harried and stressed these days. After the vice principal of the school lost two of her brothers to COVID-19, the entire administrative work of the school has fallen on her shoulders. Besides, she is also fielding calls from distressed students about how their marks are going to be calculated. Kavita herself is a little uncertain and confused on which units or mid-terms to choose as the base and whether class 11 will have the best of three subjects or all five. Besides, she is a little irritated with the way the statements keep changing.
Kavita admits that even class 12 pre-boards were conducted in a hurry in February, right after lockdown, with just a month for revisions. "Even the intelligent kids were hoping to come out with better results in the final board exams. Now when I go on Facebook, I see posts by the academically weaker students feeling very happy that now they will at least pass----that all the teachers who warned them they will remain in the same class if they don't up their game are proven wrong. It's the toppers and the intelligent kids who are feeling extremely worried."
Ankur Kishore Saxena, state president at the Uttar Pradesh Parents' Association has a solution as he believes exceptional circumstances call for exceptional measures. "All of us are of the opinion that there should not be any kind of marks on the report card.
This is a confusing formula where they even take class 9 marks in some places. You have to understand students work with more interest after class 10. And this year there's been no family which hasn't been affected by Covid, leaving them disturbed," says Saxena. "This year let all colleges and universities conduct their entrance exams at the time of admission. This will ensure a common platform with equal beneficiaries. Everyone will have access to the same benefits."
