Every decimal to count as no rounding off Class XII marks

Every decimal to count as no rounding off Class XII marks

Govt Move To Make College Admissions Hassle-free

Ragu.Raman@timesgroup.com

Chennai:17.07.2021 

A decimal point in Class XII marks can decide the fate of a student seeking admission in a college. That’s because marks will not be rounded off this year. This time, subject marks will have two decimal points to break the tie in ranking for engineering and arts and science seats.

An official in the school education department told TOI that Class XII marks will have two decimal points as per the government order. The department is introducing decimal points to avoid confusion in college admissions.

The directorate of government examinations (DGE) on Friday announced that the Class XII results will be declared on July19 and students can download their marksheets from July 22.

The state government cancelled the Class XII board exams due to Covid-19 second wave. As per the expert committee’s suggestion, it was decided to give weightage to Class X and XI board exams and Class XII practical and internal assessment. The Class X marks will carry a weightage of 50% while Class XI will carry 20% and Class XII will carry 30% weightage while computing marks.

Career consultant Jayaprakash Gandhi said there will be a lot of students in the same cut-off due to the weightage system followed this year for awarding marks to Class XII students.

“We suggested giving decimal points to break ties in deciding rank for admissions to professional courses including engineering, agriculture courses. National Testing Agency is giving JEE (Main) results in up to seven decimal points. State government has decided to give results in two decimal points and I welcome the move as it would partially solve problems during admissions,” he said.

He further suggested looking at Class XI maths, physics and fourth subject marks in addition to Class XII marks in maths, physics and fourth subjects, date of birth and random number to break tie while ranking the students. “There are possibilities that many students in Class XII would have scored full marks in maths,” he added.

G J Manohar, principal of MCC Higher Secondary School in Chetpet, said the move would help the colleges during admissions.

Some principals differed and said many students will lose the advantage of getting two or three extra marks. N Vijayan, principal of Zion Matriculation Higher Secondary School in Tambaram, said students may lose three to four marks by not rounding off their marks in each subject. “The universal rule is to discard marks less than 0.5 and add one mark to more than 0.5 mark. Marks with decimal points may lead to some confusion,” he said.

Agnes Rita, principal of GRT Mahalakshmi Vidhyalaya Matriculation Higher Secondary School in Ashok Nagar, too said it would be better to round off the marks.

We suggested giving decimal points to break ties in deciding rank for admissions for professional courses including those in engineering and agriculture. The National Testing Agency is giving JEE (Main) results in up to seven decimal points

JAYAPRAKASH GANDHI

Career consultant