College cut-offs may fall as HRD plans end to grace marks

New Delhi: TIMES NEWS NETWORK





The cutoffs for undergraduate admissions may come down if a consensus is reached among the various education boards in the country on the practice of awarding grace marks. The ministry of human resource development is planning to consult the states on scrapping the practice of awarding grace marks in certain papers if the questions are deemed to have been difficult.

 

The move comes after the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) in December 2016 resolved to seek MHRD's help to get all state boards to develop a consensus on ending the marks moderation policy which leads to inflation of scores. Under the “moderation“ policy , examinees are awarded up to 15% extra marks in certain papers if the ques tions are deemed to have been difficult. In July 2016, TOI highlighted how CBSE gave as many as 16 extra marks in the Class XII maths exam this year in the all India set of papers and 15 marks in the Delhi set during the process of standardisation.

In nine subjects, marks were `standardised' by CBSE by more than 10%. As a result of the standardisation, a student with 77 marks in mathematics may have ended up getting 93 marks on the result sheet. Similarly, a student of business studies who would have otherwise got 80 marks, may have finally got as much as 92 marks in the subject.

According to senior CBSE official, a unilateral scrapping of moderation would put its students at a disadvantage during undergraduate admissions and considered it important that all state boards agree to it
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According to an official, “The ministry has called a meeting of all education secretaries and chairpersons of state boards on April 24 and the issue is likely to be taken up there. The CBSE recommendations will be taken into account and we will see if a consensus can be arrived at with the states.“