NEW DELHI: It was only on Friday after the Central Board of Secondary Education announced the results of the Class X and XII board exams that students and parents learnt the scores had been calculated on the basis 30% weightage for Term 1 exams and 70% weightage for Term 2.
According to some schools principals, while CBSE had sought inputs from them on what the weightage should be, they found out the ratio only on Friday. Parents felt it was unfair of CBSE to not have been transparent about the process.
On Saturday, CBSE sent a circular to schools wanting them to communicate this formula to the students so they did not apply unnecessarily for verification of marks. At MM Public School, Pitampura, principal Rooma Pathak said, “The circular had an example about how the results were calculated with weightage of 30% given to Term 1 and 70% to Term 2. Earlier than this, the board never said anything.''
Jyoti Arora, principal, Mount Abu Public School, Rohini, confirmed, “CBSE collected feedback from principals across the country on the weightage to be given to the two terms. But we got to know about the 30:70 formula only after the declaration of results on Friday.”
Due to the pandemic, last year CBSE conducted the board exams over two sessions: Term 1 and Term 2. The first was held in November-December 2021 with multiple choice questions as the test format and the evaluation mostly done in schools. The second was held in April-June 2022 and evaluated by the board.
In July 2021, when CBSE announced the necessity of Term 1 and Term 2 exams due to the uncertainty caused by the pandemic, it had said if the board was able to conduct both the exams, “the theory marks will be equally distributed between the two exams”.
A parent wondered why CBSE decided weightage in this way, that too without informing the schools or students. “The papers for the two terms carried equal marks. For example, the Term 1 history paper was for 40 marks and it was the same for Term 2. The remaining 20 marks were for practicals. We got to know only on Friday that it was 30 and 70% weightage,” said one parent. “All the while, the students were led to believe the two exams would have equal weightage. The shift in weightage has affected the outcome for many students.”
Another parent, who learnt of the calculation formula only after reading the newspapers on Saturday, said, “The board had released the results of Term 1 and when nothing else was communicated, we presumed that both exams would get equal treatment.”
CBSE officials did not respond to queries about the matter.
