BENGALURU: As students revel after II PU results, educationists have warned against the inflated scores and emphasised the need for a better assessment system.
In the results announced on Tuesday, 2,239 students secured an unprecedented 600 out of 600 based on their SSLC and I PU marks along with internal assessment for II PU and grace marks. The highest total marks scored ever in II PU were 598 out of 600.
Maya Menon, founder director, Teacher Foundation, said the results confirm “our education system really does not have the ability to differentiate excellent or extraordinary students from good ones...” Menon added: “These results exemplify the deep malaise of our schooling system with exams being the purpose of learning...and that even in a pandemic year we have undue focus on administering exams rather than making learning accessible to all children across all grades.”
Educationists have been urging the education department to reimagine schooling, learning and assessment as the pandemic provided an opportunity for change. “These kind of grace marks indicate outdated thinking. This originally emerged out of the need to pass a certain percentage of kids. Given that this pass-fail binary itself is a regressive idea, providing grace marks is nothing but holding on to it to avoid much-needed reforms in our assessment system,” said Rishikesh BS, faculty member at Azim Premji University. “School-leaving certificate should provide assessment of a student’s performance over a period of time and cannot be a one-time affair. This has to be delinked from admission to higher education,” he added.
National Education Policy 2020 states that “National Testing Agency will work to offer a high-quality common aptitude test, as well as specialised common subject exams in sciences, humanities, languages, arts and vocational subjects, at least twice a year, which will help each varsity see each student’s individual subject portfolio and admit them based on individual interests and talents”.
‘Don’t know how to say no to high scorers’
Colleges, meanwhile, are worried about an anticipated surge in the number of admission seekers. Most have already completed a majority of their admissions. “In case of institutions with PU and degree colleges on the same campus, parents expect them to give admission to students who studied in the PU college. Those students have already registered. When others come for admissions with high marks, we don’t know how to say no to them,” said the principal of a degree college.
“Most colleges have completed admissions. Students who have received better marks will now try to shift to better colleges. Considering most colleges will now get students, they may give back the admission fee,” said Ali Khwaja, founder, Banjara Academy.
Venugopal KR, vice-chancellor, Bangalore University, pointed out: “There are two aspects to this increase in number of students seeking admission. One, it’s an artificial boost to the Gross Enrolment Ratio. It can be considered as rehabilitating even the poor students and can’t be considered a benchmark for increasing GER. With this, all colleges can utilise their full infrastructure and more employment can be generated. In case all colleges seek an increase in intake, the government should offer a one-time relief. But one should also be prepared to see a dip in the pass rate next year in colleges.”
Colleges say the PU result sheet became an eligibility list rather than a grading list. Many colleges have developed their own admission process of tests and interviews. “Universities should conduct entrance exams for admissions so that deserving students get seats,” said BR Suprit, secretary, Oxford Institutions, Ullal. “PU marks will not be as important as before. Colleges are trying to make the admission process easier by helping students choose courses according to their aptitude,” said Christo Joseph, director, strategy and planning, Garden City University.
