Grace marks system affects CBSE schools

 

The CBSE School Management Association put forward a proposal to the CBSE for granting grace marks to students with meritorious performance in arts and sports as well as for NCC and scouts. The proposal which came up during the annual Sahodaya meet, held in Kochi recently, had the Union Human Resources Development Minister, Smrithi Irani; announce a national youth festival from next year.

 

The Association’s General Secretary, Indira Rajan, told Deccan Chronicle that the announcement of a national youth festival was a move that would help in achieving the objective of grace marks for CBSE also.  Otherwise it would have been difficult to take a decision for just one state. Now, the ministry could formulate a grace mark system that was applicable for the whole country, Ms Rajan said. I am visiting Delhi on Thursday to further consultation with the ministry on the issue, she added.

 

The Sarvodaya Central Vidyalaya Principal, T K Cherian Panicker,   said that though the demand for grace marks for CBSE youth festival had been made in the past also, one advantage this time was that now the State has a regional office of its own.  As a result, they have more opportunities to interact with CBSE officials, Mr Panicker said.

 

The decision to make marks also a criterion for engineering admission was made on the basis of the recommendation of an expert committee, on entrance examination, submitted to the State Government in 2008.  

 

The recommendations made by the committee were to combine the marks in the qualifying examinations and entrance examinations, after the normalisation of the marks. With grace marks being added to the total marks for the public examinations, many State syllabus students get greater marks for the qualifying examinations, putting them in an advantageous situation over their CBSE counter parts.

 

This could create a number of problems in the coming years with ICSE and CBSE stream students complaining that this system was disadvantageous to them. One of the main allegations was that with the valuation being liberal and grace marks awarded for excellence in arts and sports and participation in NCC and scouts, the State syllabus students get higher ranks for the engineering entrance. The decision even resulted in litigation and protests by parents and CBSE school organisations.

 

Normalisation is a method for bringing marks scored by candidates in different Plus Two board examinations in the country and abroad to the same plane. The data of each of these boards, from 2009 to 2014, will be used for countering mark variation of different boards. If any board failed to provide the data for the process, the data of CBSE would be used for the purpose. This was because the admission to Engineering courses was based on equal weightage of 50:50 marks obtained in the Entrance Examination for Engineering in the entrance examinations and the grade/marks obtained for Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry, put together in the final year of the qualifying examination. 

 

The finding that entrance examinations were advantageous for State syllabus students also resulted in a heavy rush from CBSE stream to SSLC stream by those who passed out of Tenth standard. There was also a feeling that students with CBSE background can score high marks in the higher secondary examination in State syllabus, in turn helping them secure high rank in entrance examination.

 

The CBSE –ICSE Parents Forum Coordinator, Dr N K Sanil Kumar, said that as per some reports almost 30 per cent of the students are migrating from CBSE to State syllabus higher secondary every year. 

 

This was to ensure them better prospects in engineering entrance. Even students with 80 per cent marks have been migrating to State syllabus plus two after getting them admitted to a higher secondary school near a prestigious entrance coaching centre, Mr Kumar said.

 

Following the large scale migration from CBSE to State syllabus plus two, the Curriculum Sub-Committee of the State Government, made a recommendation that was later approved by the Government in 2012 that only CBSE students, who have appeared for the Board examination and not the school-level examination, be considered eligible for the admissions to plus-I in the State syllabus higher secondary schools.

 

The committee also recommended bonus marks to students from the State syllabus. This recommendation was introduced from 2013 admission.  The ball is now in the court of the HRD Ministry and the CBSE board.  The students, parents and teachers of CBSE were waiting eagerly to a decision from the Centre which would give them equal opportunities with the State syllabus students, at least by the 2016 engineering admissions.