Teachers and students in Kerala continue to remain worried about the alternative evaluation method proposed by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) for Class X students after their written exams were cancelled following the pandemic situation.
A Principal of a school in Kayamkulam said that they had not yet uploaded the marks on the board website hoping that the authorities would address the anomalies in the method proposed for standardisation of the marks.
As per the board, the best overall performance of the school in the previous three years of the board exam has to be taken as the reference year for moderating the marks assessed by the school for 2021.
For example, if the overall average of students in a school in 2017-18 is 72%, in 2018-19 is 74%, and in 2019-20 it is 71%, the result committee of the school has to use the subject-wise averages of 2018-19, which remain the highest for moderation.
The subject-wise marks allotted by the schools for 2021 should be within a range of + or - 2 marks obtained by the school in the reference year. The board guidelines stated that the overall average marks for 2021 should not exceed the overall average marks obtained by it in the reference year.
Principals of various schools informed the board that they were ready to submit the documents showing the better performance of the students in 2020-21 compared to the results achieved in the reference year.
The board clarified that the schools concerned cannot go as per the performance in the current year and leaving the reference year while fixing the marks. “If you calculate the results as per the performance in the present year, it will be treated as non-compliance of the proposed policy,” it said.
T.P.M Ibrahim Khan, president of the Kerala CBSE Schools Management Association, said the confusion related to the guidelines for alternative evaluation for Class X students had not yet been resolved.
“Some of the schools have not stored the evidence towards the performance of students in the internal tests/exams, as it was handed over to them after the evaluation. The board had said that these documents might be called upon for subsequent verification,” he said.
