The new policy of consideration for marks obtained in the Board exams has thrown up more questions than the Central government could answer. Many doubts are created in the minds of students and parents. The government should clarify these doubts to ensure that the new policy of the consideration of marks secured in the Board exams is implemented properly. I welcome the policy, but the doubts need to be clarified first.
Different Boards have different evaluation methods for exams, and unless a common pattern is evolved, justice will elude some students. While some Boards take marks secured in the annual exams for consideration, others count marks secured even in internal and practical exams. The problem arises when students get 100 per cent marks in internal exams and practical exams, as they will be awarded by their respective schools or colleges. This gives an unfair advantage to some students over others, since these students will get far too high a “weightage” . Since each mark plays a crucial role when lakhs of students will compete for seats at IITs or NITs, students with higher marks in internal exams and practical exams will be at an advantage, which may lead to an unnecessary crisis in future.
To avoid this, the government should devise an effective method through which all anomalies can be addressed. I do suggest that a “percentile system” will be useful to bridge this gap. The government should also initiate effective steps to ensure that the evaluation of answer scripts in board exams is “error free”.
There are several instances of students getting high marks when they apply for the revaluation of their answer scripts. This issue, too, should be addressed before releasing the final merit list after taking “weightage” into consideration. The norms for awarding marks in internal exams and practical exams should be tightened to ensure that there is no mischief on the part of managements. There should be random inspection of the marks awarded internally to ensure that genuine meritorious students will not lose admissions in a competition to students who are awarded marks liberally.
Professor V.S. Rao is Director, BITS—Pilani Hyderabad Campus