Exam cancellation leads to debate on scoring method

Following the cancellation of CBSE Class 12 board exams this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, stakeholders including school principals and education experts have suggested that scores in internal exams of Class 12 or the performance of the students in Class 11 and Class 10 board exams may be considered to devise an alternative assessment method.

After a high-level review meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the government on Tuesday announced that Class 12 board exams will not be held this year and CBSE will compile the results as per a well-defined objective criteria that will be announced later.

Like last year, the government has also directed the national board to provide an option for students to take the exams if they wish to do so but only when the situation becomes conducive.

Educationist Meeta Sengupta said the board can consider internal scores of classes 10 to 12 and Class 10 board exam marks for assessing Class 12 results. “These exams were conducted under the supervision of CBSE. They should trust their systems. Equal weightage should be given to all the components so that students are not left to the mercy of any one exam. An entrance test, to be conducted twice a year, should also be introduced for Class 12 students seeking admission to higher educational institutions,” she said.

While experts suggested a combination of scores, principals across the capital said that including Class 11 results in the mix will not be helpful due to several reasons, including strict marking, online learning, and the “lax attitude of students” during Class 11.

Ameeta Wattal, principal of Springdales, Pusa Road, said, “Using Class 11 scores may not be very helpful. Generally, students in Class 11 engage in multiple extra-curricular activities to de-stress after appearing for their Class 10 boards and tend to focus more on those activities than academics,” she said.

She added that the board will have to consider varying factors while coming up with the objective criteria for deciding Class 12 results. “Some schools may have already conducted Class 12 pre-board exams while other might not have been able to. In some cases, the exams or practicals may have been conducted online. Taking all these variations into account, the board can come up with a system of averages, predicted scores or percentile for assessment and allot marks,” Wattal said.

Principals also said that considering only Class 12 pre-boards is not a suitable option as students tend to perform better in board exams than school pre-boards.

Alka Kapur, principal of Modern Public School in Shalimar Bagh, said, “Many high-performing students focus more on their competitive exams during that period and only study for their final board exams later. These students could be at a disadvantage if we only look at Class 12 pre-boards. Similarly, considering only test scores of classes 10 to 12 will not be enough. The board could introduce a ’teachers’ recommendation’ criteria in the grading system as teachers know about each child.”

Several government schools in the national capital said they were relieved over the cancellation of exams, and added that they were now waiting for CBSE’s directions on the matter. There are around 1,030 government schools in Delhi and all of them are affiliated to CBSE.

Awadhesh Kumar Jha, principal of Sarvodaya Co-ed Vidyalaya in Sector-8 Rohini, said the board should only consider internal scores of Class 12 and board exam results of Class 10.

“Teachers tend to do tight marking in Class 11 so that students prepare better for their Class 12 boards. So we cannot take Class 11 results into account while compiling Class 12 results. However, the board should give around 20-30% weightage to Class 10 board exams. The remaining can be divided between the pre-board and other internal exams of Class 12. The board should also introduce a moderation policy for schools so that the marking is standardised, similar to the one they introduced this year for Class 10 board results,” Jha added.

According to an official press release, the Prime Minister said that the decision on Class 12 CBSE Exams has been taken in the interest of students. He stated that Covid-19 has affected the academic calendar and the issue of board exams has been causing immense anxiety among students, parents and teachers, which must be put to an end.

PM said that the Covid situation is a dynamic situation across the country. While the number of cases are decreasing in the country and some states are managing the situation through effective micro-containment, some states have still opted for a lockdown, the release said.

Students, parents and teachers are naturally worried about the health of the students in such a situation. The Prime Minister said that students should not be forced to appear for exams in such a stressful situation, the official release stated.