English scores behind drop in pass percentage of ICSE, ISC students, say Lucknow schools

Several schools in Uttar Pradesh’s Lucknow have said that low marks in English pulled down the overall percentage of their students in the ICSE or Class 10 and ISC or Class 12 board examinations.

Principals of schools in the city said that the “damage to ICSE results” was far more in comparison to ISC and “brought down scores across India”.

Debra Bunny, principal of St Agnes Loreto Day School said it was disappointing to see that many of the girls who did so well in their school examination and deserve to get more than 90 in English did not get that marks.

“Our schools have always scored very well in English, except this year. I hope that council looks into it and does justice with the students so that they remain motivated to pursue higher studies in humanities with English as one of the subject,” she said.

“There is a sense of nervousness and anxiety among students on how their papers were evaluated,” the principal of a prominent coeducational school in Gomti Nagar area, who did not want to be named, said.

She said, citing examples, that students with overall scores as high as 95% and above had been marked “as low as 89%” in English.

“This is distressing because in our school the 2018 batch of students was in no way below the standard of the 2017 batch. Also, the same teachers taught both the batches,” she added.

The situation was similar at La Martiniere Girls’ College (LMGC), which said many of its students scored below expectation in English, thus bringing down the aggregates in both Indian Certificate of Secondary Education or Class 10 and Indian School Certificate or Class 12 exams.

“Although the College did exceptionally well with an average percentage of 90% in both examinations, English results have been very disappointing, with some very good students getting scores in the 80s,” its principal Aashrita Dass said.

Author and national award recipient Dheeraj Mehrotra supported the view of LMGC’s principal.

“Much to everyone’s surprise, English scores for ICSE were quite dissatisfactory for a majority of the schools. It was the main reason of dissatisfaction among students,” he said.

“No doubt, English pulled down the percentage pan India and I am sure the council would look into it,” he said.

Mehrotra was referring to the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE), which conducts the exams.

The principal of another school said that they hoped that the council would look into the English results so that schools could “understand the criteria of evaluation in English in 2018 and take effective measures accordingly”.

However, principals of two branches of City Montessori School were more guarded in their response.

“According to our English teacher, literature marks were fine, but the marking was somewhat tougher in the language paper,” Kalpana Tripathi, principal of CMS Mahanagar campus, said.

“We feel English results were fair. The deserving candidates scored well. Only a few complained,” Abha Anant, principal CMS Gomti Nagar campus 1, also said.

The council declared results of ICSE and ISC exams on May 14.