Over a period of time a new system of evaluation of answer scripts of class 10th and class 12th students by JK Board of School Education (BOSE) has ruffled many feathers with awarding of 100 percent marks to the students in their annual examinations.
This year again, the JK Board surprised people as over a dozen students were awarded 100 percent marks – 500 out of 500.
Around 15 students were awarded 100 percent marks in their annual 2021 class 10th exam which created a debate over the mode of evaluation adopted by the JK Board.
The subject experts and other stakeholders have raised concern over the trend saying that the present of evaluation gives a sense of perfection to the students and apparently leaves no scope of improvement.
The academicians opine that scoring 100 percent marks in Mathematics, Physics or Accountancy and other similar subjects was possible. But awarding 100 percent marks to students in language subjects like English, Urdu, Hindi and other subjects has made even subject experts anxious.
In the past, the students from primary to high school level would not get 100 percent marks in language subjects despite attempting 100 percent marks. One mark was deducted in language subjects by default.
But the new trend has left the educationists confused who desire to know the curious case of ‘perfection’.
One cannot limit the aspirations of the students and bar them to seek perfection. But then seeking perfection is not a cake walk. Students getting 500 out of 500 marks in a Board exam can be an outstanding achievement and one can say that the students securing 100 percent marks could be exceptionally brilliant and genius.
But it has raised a concern as it makes a teenage student a perfectionist which may give rise to overconfidence among these students, and which at any point of time may prove disastrous for these students.
A perception has been built that JK Board has changed the mode of evaluation for awarding full marks to the students. But there is another side of the story which needs to be understood by all.
Over the past few years the government has adopted the policy of awarding grace marks to students across the board.
“This is apart from the old practice of awarding statute five marks to the students to qualify the exam. For statute we have only five marks as per the policy. But the decision for awarding gracing marks to the students is taken by the administrative department in the School Education Department,” an official said.
This is done to help the students to qualify the JK Board (class 10, 11 and 12) examination who are otherwise failing in it. Not only this, it also helps the government to improve the pass percentage of the result. The move has both good and bad sides.
The positive side of it is that awarding grace marks to the weak students helps the government to avoid students becoming school dropouts who after declared qualified in exams continue their studies till they pass class 12th examination. But the negative side of the story is that the government has not set a proper procedure to declare who the students should be who actually deserve the grace marks.
Let us take an example. The actual pass percentage of the students in class 12th (annual 2021) exams was not what was shown in the result gazette.
The JK Board declared the result of class 12th students with a pass percentage of 74.9 percent. But the actual pass percentage was less than that. If officials are to be believed then the actual pass percentage was only 60 to 65 percent (which is yet debatable).
After the result is compiled by the JKBOSE it is sent to the administrative department for approval where the department besides giving approval to declare the result also announces its decision on awarding grace marks to the students. The decision is taken on the basis of the actual pass percentage of the students.
The government awards grace marks regardless of who has scored how many marks due to which the total marks awarded by some students jumps to 500.
The government should award the grace marks exclusively to those students who obtain below 370 marks out of 500. The students who score secure distinction or above 400 marks should not be awarded any grace marks. The grace marks should help the students to pass the exam who otherwise are failing instead of helping students to jump their marks to 500.
The Board officials defend the move by saying that the evaluation was done only for the 60 percent of the paper wherein the students had attempted all the questions perfectly leaving no chance for deduction of a single mark in their papers.
The Board officials say the students attempted the conceptual part and left the theoretical portion of the paper and scored 100 percent marks in all the subjects.
Besides awarding grace marks, the JK Board should also do away with the moderation- the process of giving extra marks to students for different reasons. The moderation is done by the JK Board to address issues of ambiguity in questions, unusually high difficulty level of a paper and other reasons to award additional marks to the students to improve the pass percentage of the students.
Once the practice of moderation is abolished, it can be a good start in making the JK Board marking pattern more realistic.
Even the CBSE along with other state Boards have already decided to drop the policy of moderation after it was found that such marks were given in excess, leading to a spike in the overall scores.
While opposing moderation and awarding grace marks across the board, the intention is not to undermine the efforts of the students to attain excellence in exams. Neither is there any intention to discourage these brilliant minds.
But one has to understand that this mad race to get cent percent marks in exams will reach the level where students will be confused about the level of seeking perfection.
The marks obtained in any exams should always allude to the scope of further improvement by the students.
It is not merely about awarding grace marks to make the result jump to 500/500, it is about creating an enabling environment for students to make them worthy of braving competition. It is also about leaving enough space for them to excel in future rather than getting a sense of entitlement of being completely perfect in their studies.
Today’s academia is fast evolving into a multi-faceted phenomenon where focus is on fostering innovation, creativity and critical thinking.
These objectives cannot be attained merely with a 500/500 scheme or completely focusing on examinations alone. It can be attained with overhauling of the whole system of education including the evaluation of students which can be done in much better ways to gauge their levels of competitiveness. Everyone has to join hands to realise this goal.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinions of the author.
The facts, analysis, assumptions and perspective appearing in the article do not reflect the views of GK.