Bhubaneswar: After weeks of uncertainty, class 12 board exams were cancelled in India earlier this month. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has already come up with a 30:30:40 formula for assessment of class 12 students, which has been accepted by the Supreme Court.
The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE), however, is yet to announce its formula for assessment of students. CISCE did submit its evaluation criteria to Supreme Court, whereby it stated that class 10, 11 and 12 marks will be considered for assessing class 12 students. But the board is yet to share the proposed formula with school authorities.
As the suspense continues for CISCE class 12 students, teachers and parents, all stakeholders in Bhubaneswar are looking forward to Monday when they expect to get a clearer picture.
Devraj Patra, one such anxious ICSE student, would prefer a formula similar to what CBSE has devised.
“I checked the Council’s website, the assessment formula hasn’t been mentioned. I hope it will come up with something similar to CBSE. I hope by Monday the suspense is over,” said Devraj.
The pandemic situation has forced this situation, where students can’t sit for vital exams after working very hard throughout the year.
Loyola School vice-principal Nandita Pattanayak feels for the students.
“Whenever a parameter has to be set for the majority, it will always benefit those in lower brackets. Above average and average students are the ones who will be at a disadvantage,” observed Nandita.
Though CISCE has submitted the criteria for evaluation and it has been accepted as well, it has not yet declared the procedure of assessment.
“We have been asked to wait till there is authentication from the Council. Things should be clear by Monday,” said Nandita, hoping that the Council will come up with an objective formula that will be beneficial for the students.
ICSE schools have already conducted half-yearly and pre-board examinations in this session, she said.
“We conducted the pre-board examination offline in February when the government permitted us to invite 10 students each to write the tests. We have also conducted the practical examination,” she informed.
From the parents’ perspective, Jagadev Sahoo is worried about the future of his child.
“Though Boards are coming up with formulae to evaluate performance of a student on the basis of performance in their previous classes, I am not sure about these methods. I don’t know what formula ICSE is going to implement, but I hope it will come up with something that would benefit students in future,” said Jagadev.
CBSE FORMULA WELCOMED
As far as the CBSE formula is concerned, most teachers, parents and students are satisfied with it.
According to its formula, marks from classes 10, 11 and 12 will be considered in 30:30:40 ratio to prepare the class XII result, will would be declared by July 31.
“We realised that assessing the students only through pre-board results of class XII would have been difficult. It would have been a problem to assess students on the basis of pre-board and class 12 results, as most students take class 11 exams lightly. Including marks of class 10 will definitely help help assess them properly,” said Mother’s Public School Principal Poly Patnaik.
However, she also feels that weaker students will benefit more, while good students who study throughout the year will lose out.
“Forty per cent of the marks will be based on performance in the current academic session. We have conducted two pre-board examinations from which we will choose better result,” informed Poly.
Praneeta Sahoo, a mother of a Class 12 student of CBSE board, said it was unfortunate that Board exams were cancelled.
“Our daughter scored 92 per cent in class 10 and she was preparing well for class 12 board exams also. Though we are sad about the decision, we are also concerned about the safety of our children. She has done well in the pre-board exams… we are hopeful she will do well based on the new criteria,” Praneeta said.
CBSE class 12 student Abhijit Patnaik had been preparing for the Boards seriously as he wants to pursue medical studies.
“We have been attending online classes and appeared for pre board examinations. I have been working really hard to get good results in the finals. I feel I would have scored good marks in the Boards… but I did well in 10th and 11th exams also. Now I am more focused on cracking the medical entrance exam,” Abhijit confessed.
