CBSE Class 12 results: English plays spoilsport in Bengal

Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Class 12 students in Kolkata are not happy with their marks in English paper and complained the low scores would put them in a disadvantageous position during college admission.

The pressure on students to score a high percentage has mounted in the last decade with rising scores driving up college admission cut-off levels. Most prestigious colleges in Delhi University declare first list cut-offs above 99% marks.

Sushila Birla Girl’s School’s Devika Maheshwari, who secured 96.4% and has become the probable city topper in humanities, is not happy with her marks in English.

“I got 92 in English, less than my expectation. It has pulled down my overall aggregate,” she said.

Teachers also said they were extremely disappointed with the marks their students got in English. They said the results have not been what they expected.

Read more: As it happened: CBSE Class 12 results 2016 declared

“Out of 123 students, who appeared in the exam from our school this year, 67 scored above 90% marks. But even after scoring above 90 in every subject our students have on an average scored between 85 and 70% in English. This has brought down their overall aggregate,” Meena Kak, principal of Lakshimipath Singhania Academy, said.

Several schools have decided to opt for reviewing the marks of all the students who took the paper.

“This year 218 students appeared in the exam from my school and those who should have scored above 90% in English have scored between 80% and 70% marks. We have decided to apply for reviewing the English paper of the entire school,” Birla High School for Boys’ principal Mukta Nain said.

The final aggregate is reached by calculating the marks of best of four subjects along with those obtained in English.

And, if the score in English is low then the overall aggregate is also pulled down.

“Our students would be the sufferer in college admission. Especially those wanting to study English honours in one of the top colleges may end up fighting a losing battle,” Sharmila Bose, principal of Sushila Birla Girl’s School, said.

But an application for review will not help students in their quest for college admissions.

“The review result takes about a month to be published. The students now have no option but to compete for their college admission with this mark sheet. We would be asking CBSE to review the English paper of all our students,” Lakshimipath’s Kak said.

“The result will arrive in a months’ time. By then the college admissions will be over, but they will be able to use it in their future studies,” she added.

While the English paper was easy, teachers are trying to figure out what might have gone wrong.

“The question paper can be easy but scoring depends on the evaluation pattern. We feel that this time the evaluation for English paper was tough,” Rekha Visya, principal of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, said.

“Out of 282 students, who appeared in CBSE from our school, over 100 students have scored above 90% marks but the English score of most of our students including those scored over 90% marks hovered between 70% and 80%,” she added.