"Counselling For College Admissions May Be Deferred to After Declaration of Results" Observes SC -Courtroom Exchange In CBSE/ICSE/Compartment/State Boards Exams Case

In the hearing before the Supreme Court on the CBSE/ICSE policies for assessment of class XII results, Senior Advocate Vikas Singh, for an intervenor, indicated certain concerns as regards the Boards' policies for evaluation.The bench of Justices A. M. Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheshwari was hearing the matter. Exercise of option for improvement of results at the outsetFirstly, Mr. Singh prayed that the option as to whether a student wishes his result to be determined as per the scheme or he wishes to take the improvement exam ought to be exercised before declaration of the result itself."This option may not be given as either this or either that. That will result in a huge amount of uncertainty later. Let them decide in the beginning only- whether you want to take this option or you want to take the exam. Then the result can be declared. Then all the results will come at the one go and admissions to colleges will be dependent on that one result. All universities will have access to that one result at the same time. Give them the option at the outset only, rather than as a betterment chance later", advanced Mr. Singh."At present, a student doesn't know what marks he is going to secure", remarked Justice Khanwilkar."He knows the formula, he will understand where he stands", said Mr. Singh."Everyone who wishes to appear in the exam should have the option to appear. But if I am satisfied with the present marks, why should I make an attempt for the improvisation of marks? That the option (for taking the improvement exam or not) can be exercised at the outset, there is no difficulty. That point we can put to the AG", observed Justice Khanwilkar."If it is an exercise at the outset, then we have no difficulty. But if it is a method to improve the score , then there will be a huge amount of uncertainty. Students will be going from here to there...", said Mr. Singh.Some schools liberal in marking of internal exams, while some more stringentFurther, Mr. Singh indicated that while some schools are liberal in their marking of the internal exam, some are more stringent. "That is why you have the ICSE board and state boards and the CBSE board. If the marking is to be based on the basis of the school exam, then it is a throw of dice! People don't know where they will be. I know about my school but I don't know about the other schools", he advanced.While ICSE takes English as compulsory, CBSE is going by 'Best of 3'Next, Mr. Singh submitted that the criteria for the basis of evaluation by the ICSE and the CBSE are different; that while the ICSE takes English as compulsory in addition to the best of the 3 subject marks, the CBSE only takes 'Best of 3'; that while one is taking the average, the other is taking the best mark."This kind of uncertainty should not be there. It would be uniform for both", he pointed out.Marking for current year based on previous batches of last 3 yearsMoving on, Mr. Singh flagged the concern that the marking for the current year is on the basis of the students who have studied in the school in the past three years. "Some students may not have studied in the same school for all these 3 years. Also, the school may have taken in new teachers, better teachers for a better score. Say, the subject of commerce has done badly and so the school brings a new teacher and the current teaching is better, or if the students' profile has changed in this year. The basis should not be somebody else's batch! The comparison of what I did for the past three years, I can understand. But don't take my results for the past three years and compare it with the earlier batches which have passed out', he prayed.CBSE allowing schools themselves to do computation, giving scope for manipulation, while ICSE doing the needful itselfFinally, he pointed out that while as regards the CBSE, it is the schools themselves which are doing the computation, under the ICSE regime, it is the Board which has undertaken to do the needful- "There is another problem- in ICSE, they have asked for the data from each school as early as in April and May, whereas in CBSE, the school itself will do the computation""Apple cannot be compared with orange. They are two different boards", said Justice Khanwilkar."If a school itself is doing something, then there is scope for manipulation. In CBSE, every school has been told that this is how you have to work and how you have to decide the marking. In ICSE, schools have already frozen the data and the ICSE board will determine who gets what marks and they have taken the data. The difficulty is if you leave it to the schools, the current year result is not something that they were under an obligation to put on the website. Last year's result they had put on the website. So they can still manipulate this year's result", argued Mr. Singh.Finally, he advanced that so far as scaling is concerned, the formula devised by the Boards is very complex- "I spoke to a very senior Maths teacher who said that he is unable...

"Counselling For College Admissions May Be Deferred to After Declaration of Results" Observes SC -Courtroom Exchange In CBSE/ICSE/Compartment/State Boards Exams Case

Mehal Jain

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