‘CBSE has taken the best step under the current Covid-19 situation’

The uncertainty of the Covid-19 pandemic looming large and the postponement of Class 10 and 12 boards theory examinations kept ticking the minds of the students.

After several deliberations, finally on June 17, 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that there will be no examinations conducted and an evaluation criterion will be announced.

This came as a relief to many students and parents fearful of writing exams physically amid the risk of infection from this dreaded disease.

Various permutations and combinations were threshed out by the experts and suggestions were gathered from all stakeholders and finally came the 30:30:40 formula 2021 for Grade 12 results. The formula takes into account one external exam taken by the child, that is previous Class 10 board, an internal exam of Grade 11 which reflects the capability of the child in his/her preferred stream (subject selected) and finally the continuous assessments cumulated by school in Grade 12 i.e., the UT/ Mid Term/ Pre-Boards.

The option of taking into account the best three subjects of Grade 10 makes it further child-friendly. So, the 30% weightage to Grade 10, 30% to Grade 11 and 40% to Grade 12 will contribute to the theory marks of a student in all subjects. The practical aspect has been taken care of by all schools separately along with the internal grades.

Schools are further instructed to form a committee with two internal PGTs from main subjects and two external PGTs from neighbouring schools. The task of this committee will be to compute the marks in the prescribed 30:30:40 ratio.

The major task of the committee will be to calculate the average marks in the best three subjects of Grade 10 and get the 30% weightage, moderate the internal marks of Grade 11 30% and formulate the rational document for Grade 12 weightage of 40%.

Finally, the historic average will be used for overall school average and the subjective range for moderation is applicable within a range of +5 accurately to reference year, making the overall historic average to match and not exceed more than 2 marks.

The final document will be uploaded and vetted by the CBSE before declaring the result by end of July, 2021. The CBSE has considered various parameters in this document and has given maximum advantage to a child to score suitably and further proceed for higher admission. The CBSE has even given clear guidelines for the students who have migrated from other boards where the portal has been created by CBSE for uploading the best three subject marks in Grade 10 of the other board but it should also not exceed the highest marks given by CBSE in that subject. For the students having sixth subject the average of three main subjects will be considered and any change in subject in Grade 11 will also be awarded the average of 3 highest marks.

After all calculations if a student still feels dissatisfied with the assessment, they will be given an opportunity to appear in examination to be conducted when conditions are conducive. Schools have enough flexibility for assessing the students and do justice to the assessment. While nothing in this world can be perfect, this is a very good solution to a grave and critical problem that was confronting the students.

Now, the students should focus on their college admissions being rest assured that the CBSE has taken care of the results in best possible way seeing the current situation.

Ritu Mehta is the principal of Apeejay School, Panchsheel Park. The views expressed are personal.