The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has cancelled class 10 and 12 board exams amid the pandemic, but private students – who are either repeating classes or registered for improvement will have to appear for the exams.
The board has directed that the examination for such candidates will be conducted from August 15 to September 15. But these students say that they should be treated like regular students and the grading system is discriminatory.
Abhijeet Rajak, 18, appeared for the board exams in 2020 as a regular student from Millia Convent English School, Purnia, Bihar. Though he got 64 per cent marks, he fell short of 3 marks to clear the Physics paper and got a compartment. This year, he is registered as a private candidate.
“Even if the examinations are conducted, the result will be declared by October itself, which will deprive us of the opportunity to take admission in the desired college as regular students will already fill the seats,” said Rajak.
CBSE’s controller of examinations Sanyam Bhardwaj told indianexpress.com that the exams will be conducted in a synchronous manner and students will not miss the university admission procedures.
“This year, around 22,000 students have been registered under the private category. Often, these students are only looking for a passing certificate as a qualification. Despite all the concerns, the examinations will be completed by September 15 to ensure that the results do not clash with the admission or entrance test in the university.
Another private category student, Saurav Kumar of DAV School, Sector-6, Bokaro, Jharkhand, said that CBSE did not inform about the exception of the provision while announcing the cancellation. The decision to allow private candidates to appear for the exam was shared 15 days after PM Modi originally announced the cancellation of the exam.
“For almost two weeks, we felt that our exams were cancelled and we started preparing for admission. Though the board is denying PM Modi’s announcement, still we do not have any clarity on the exam schedule. Calls have started coming from colleges for admission. If the result comes after November, then our whole year will be wasted. This is a clear indication that regular students will move ahead in life and career”, said 19-year-old Sourav, adding, “Private candidates should also be evaluated on the basis of alternative policy”.
On preparing a marking scheme for these candidates, Bhardwaj said that the board does not have the appropriate data to promote these students. “Since these students are only registered for exams, they are not evaluated for internal assessment or projects. Regular students are being promoted on the basis of all the assessments done throughout the year and the performance of the last two years,” he said.
Haryana Board of School Education (BSEH) has recently declared the result of Open School Examination March 2021. The result of fresh category candidates has been declared by giving minimum 33% pass marks in all subjects. Candidates who have appeared in Re/CTP/STC in one subject, result is declared by giving average marks for all the subjects in which the candidate failed.
Saurav Kumar (DAV School) said that the CBSE Class 12 evaluation policy has also indicated that grace marks should be given to regular students wherever possible. “Since I was not able to clear a paper in 2020 due to 2 marks, should I not be eligible for the grace marks that regular student get this year?” He asked.
Sukhpal Singh Toor, education activist and president of NCR Parents Association said that private candidates can be assessed on the basis of past record of class 10/12/internal/project and practical. “We request to cancel the offline examination for CBSE class 12 private students and result declared by July 31 along with regular students.
He said that compartment candidates are those who have passed in four out of five subjects in their previous attempt. Compulsory repeat/fail candidates have also passed in maximum three subjects. “CBSE can easily provide general average marking or adopt any other criterion to assess these students without conducting physical test”, he added.
CBSE private students are also demanding that they should be evaluated either on the basis of the average of marks obtained in all other papers as regular candidates or on the basis of their performance in class 10 and 11.
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