Assessment Under CBSE Scheme Would Replicate, As Far As Possible, Marks Which Students Would Have Obtained In In-Person Examination: AG KK Venugopal To SC
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Narrating the scheme evolved by the CBSE for the assessment of class 12th students, AG K. K. Venugopal on Thursday told the Supreme Court that the students will be able to get a certificate declaring, practically as far as possible in recent circumstances, the marks which they would have got if there was an in-person examination."The scheme would replicate the situation that would have...
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Narrating the scheme evolved by the CBSE for the assessment of class 12th students, AG K. K. Venugopal on Thursday told the Supreme Court that the students will be able to get a certificate declaring, practically as far as possible in recent circumstances, the marks which they would have got if there was an in-person examination.
"The scheme would replicate the situation that would have transpired if they were to take the in-person examination. The capacity of the student with regard to each and every subject would be reflected", AG told the bench of Justices A. M. Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheshwari.
"The Union of India is the controlling authority of the CBSE. The CBSE and the ICSE have had to face an unprecedented situation which has never before happened in the history of this country. The CBSE has been in existence since 1929. To assuage all concerns, they have had to innovate. We have to be fair to every single student. They have devised something by having a committee of 13 experts who have gone through various alternatives and finally come to this policy", began the AG.
The AG elaborated that the scheme envisages that the performance of the students across 3 grades- classes 10th, 11th and 12th- will be assessed, with standards 10th and 11th being accorded a weightage of 30% each and 12th being accorded a weightage of 40%.
"10th also has a Board exam but the subjects of that board exam are different from 11th and 12th because 11th and 12th is to train the students for future professional courses. Out of the five main subjects, we have taken the three of the best marks of each student to arrive at the result. That is averaged out and a single number is arrived. That is the capacity of the student so far is 10th concerned", told the AG.
"30% weightage is given to this mark finally arrived at. If one has got 80 out the total 80 marks, then 30% of this 80 would come to 24. So the maximum the student could get for a particular subject is 24. Suppose, out of 80, he does not get 80 but gets 60, then you get 60 out of 80 into 24 (being 18)- that is his capacity!", continued the AG.
He continued that as regards 11th also, the scheme contemplates taking into consideration each one of the exams already conducted- the unit exam, the term exam or any other exam which has been held, as well as the final exam- and the marks are similarly deduced and averaged out. "But the marks are taken for each one of the five main subjects which would also be the same five subjects in the 12th standard also", added the AG.
"For 11th standard, 30% is taken as the weightage for each of the subject. So the maximum is again 24. If he got 50 out of 80, he will get proportionate marks out of 24", said the AG.
Similarly, so far as 12th standard is concerned, as regards the theory of the five subjects, the weightage given is 40%. "The composition of theory marks of class 12th would be based on the performance in one or more unit tests, term exams, pre-boards. If you get 50 out of 80, then you get 40% of that", said the AG.
As regards the practical examination in class 12, the AG submitted that the marks taken into consideration are a hundred percent– that whatever are the marks given, the same are not subject to any percentage in any manner.
'To ensure moderation, result committee to comprise 2 teachers of neighbouring schools; Overall performance in previous 3 years' examination will be taken as reference'- AG
"The schools tend to give as high marks as possible to give preference in admissions to colleges to their students over other schools. Therefore, the result committee is there for each of the schools in the country which are teaching the CBSE curriculum. The result committee will comprise the principal and two of the senior most teachers of that school itself and two teachers of neighbouring schools, who would really be rivals, to ensure that there is moderation in the assessment.This result committee is infact the moderation committee", advanced the AG.
He also explained that three years' performance will be seen so that there will not be an anxiety on the part of the school to push the child to get admission by exaggerating his marks. "That is why we go back three years, two years and one year and look at the performance. If suppose, it is found that he was getting much less marks than other students three years back, then we would suspect that there has been an anxiety on the part of the school to exaggerate the marks to give him an opportunity above the others", said the AG.
The AG told that to ensure standardisation in each school, there will have to be a moderation of the historical performance in the previous years' board examinations. In the previous years, there would be no particular anxiety to increase the marks. Best overall performance in the previous three years' examination will be taken as a reference for moderating the marks assessed for 2021. The overall average marks of the students in 2021 should not exceed the overall marks obtained in the reference years. The subject-wise marks assessed by the school for 2020-2021 should be within a range of plus/minus 5 marks obtained by the students in the school in the subject in the reference year.
"Once the committee finalises the marks based on tests and exams, in case any student is not able to make the qualifying criteria, he will be placed in the 'essential repeat' or 'compartment category', for whom public examination will be held and they can improve upon their marks by appearing in the examinations. The students not satisfied with their assessment based on the policy will be given an opportunity to appear in the examination when conditions are conducive for holding the examination. Then the score in the later examination will be considered as final", told the AG.
'All-in-all, we are happy with the scheme. But mechanism for dispute resolution, outerlimit for the result declaration/conduct of physical exam to be incorporated in the scheme'- SC
Expressing that the Court is all-in-all happy with the scheme proposed by the CBSE and that the majority of the students would find no concern as regards the policy of assessment, however, Justice Khanwilkar suggested that a mechanism for the resolution of disputes that any student may have as regards his or her marks after the result is declared must be made part of the scheme.
"Last year, we were inundated with writ petitions like that! The dispute resolution must form part of the scheme itself so that the students are not compelled to go anywhere outside", said the judge.
"Also, the outer date as regards the declaration of the result and the conduct of the physical exam must be made part of the scheme. That way the students will know the timeline and you will also know how many students wish to take the exam. If there are 50,000 students or even 1 lakh students who wish to take the exam, then it is a manageable number. You can accordingly hold the exam, subject to the situation and the other logistical arrangements", said the judge.
However, the AG continued to explain, "In the UPSC exam, there are lakhs of candidates. They had come before the court saying that when the raw marks had been leaked, they had secured 80 but in the final results published, they had got only 56. It was their case that their marks had been manipulated. But that is not so. It is just that while in Mathematics, it is possible to secure very high marks, in English, one may not go beyond 60-70. Also, some examiners give very high marks and some others are very strict. So we carry out a moderation exercise"
"I have noted down Your Lordships' suggestions and they will be considered very seriously. There will be an application of mind. But the CBSE has experience since 1929! Whether to accept or reject the suggestions is upto them", added the AG.
The bench told the AG that thought the CBSE is an autonomous body and free to take its decisions, it cannot be open to the CBSE to not provide for a dispute resolution mechanism or the outer-date in the scheme.
The AG assured that the dispute resolution mechanism and the outer date for declaration of the result as per the scheme, which, he said is July 31, 2021, and for the conduct of the examinations would be incorporated in the scheme itself.