The Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights has directed top officials of the General Education department to issue guidelines specifying the norms for awarding and deducting marks for continuous evaluation.
A single bench of commission member K. Nazeer directed the General Education Secretary and the Director of General Education (DGE) to give directions to teachers about the guidelines issued.
The commission said the continuous evaluation guidelines should be transparent and protect the rights of children, leaving no room for teachers to adopt a discriminatory attitude while awarding marks.
Complaint
The commission was acting on a petition from a student who completed his education from Pirappancode Higher Secondary School in 2020. The student had secured A+ in all subjects, except English. When he contacted the school for revaluation, he was told that loss of marks in continuous evaluation resulted in him losing out on A+. The student also complained that the continuous evaluation marks were not displayed even once on the school notice board or the students were informed about the marks.
The Higher Secondary Joint Director (Examinations)’s report said that according to the Principal, the marks had been put up on the notice board. However, owing to the unexpected COVID-19 situation the students could not be summoned to the school and asked to sign the printout of the continuous evaluation marks.
One mark deducted
The English teacher informed the commission that the student had been awarded 19 marks out of 20 and one mark was deducted for non-submission of work.
As the student claimed during an online hearing that he had completed the continuous evaluation work and submitted it to the English teacher, the commission observed that a department-level investigation was necessary to ascertain the circumstances behind the student getting 19 marks out of 20, if one mark was deducted for not doing the work, and if the student had submitted the work.
The commission also asked the DGE for the current guidelines for awarding marks. However, the commission found that the guidelines did not specify the norms for awarding each of the 20 marks given to students for continuous evaluation. As these marks were critical for determining eligibility for higher education, it should be laid down how each mark was awarded and what the yardsticks were. Only then could transparency be ensured in awarding the marks, it said.
