Sep 14 2017 : The Times of India (NaviMumbai)

CBSE orders psychometric test on staff at all its schools after murder at Ryan

Sumaiya Yousuf  | Bhopal





Breaking its silence five days after the murder of a child at Ryan International School in Gurugram, the CBSE on Wednesday announced that the onus of safety of students on campus lies solely with school authorities.

 

The CBSE said this in response to a Supreme Court query in the aftermath of the Gurugram school murder.

On Wednesday, the board sent a circular on `safety of children' to its affiliated schools, giving them two months to complete psychometric evaluation of all staff --teachers, non-teaching employees, sweepers, bus drivers and conductors included. “Owing to increasing incidents involving safety and well-being of school children, the onus for safety and security of children on campus shall solely lie upon the school authorities,“ says the circular, adding: “It is the fundamental right of a child to engage and study in an environment where heshe feels safe and is free from any form of physical or emotional abuse or harassment.“

The official word from CBSE will assuage parents jolted by the Ryan School murder. What may prove tough for schools is the mandatory psychometric evaluation. “Schools must get psychometric evaluation done for all the staff employed.Such verification and evaluation for non-teaching staff -such as bus drivers, conductors, peons and other support staff -may be done very carefully and in a detailed manner,“ the CBSE said.
Deputy secretary (affiliation) Jaiprakash Chaturvedi has asked schools to strive to promote better understanding among teachers and staff on “laws protecting the safety, security and interests of students“. The latest rules require all schools to devise means to “take immediate remedial and punitive action against such violations.“

“Staff members should also be educated to recognize their protective obligation toward students and ensure safety and well-being of children in schools,“ the circular says.

Khattar considering CBI probe: Paswan

Demanding a thorough probe into the killing of a seven-year-old student of Ryan International School in Gurgaon, Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan said on Wednesday that he had talked to Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar, who told Paswan he would seriously consider handing over the investigation to CBI. TNN

Probe shows Ryan violated security norms

Police probing the Ryan International case reported several irregularities in the implementation of guidelines issued by the CBSE, the Haryana government and the SC, that relate to student safety and security, before the Sohna court on Wednesday. Police also said the amount spent on safety and security of children by the Bhondsi branch of the school were, going by the guidelines, insufficient. The public prosecutor said some documents, including a proposal by the principal to improve the school branch's security, had been recovered. Branch officials claimed they had forwarded it to their head office, though cops are yet to verify whether it was actually received in Mumbai, or what action was taken on it. “The bus conductor remains the prime accused...we're trying to widen the probe and dig out financial and institutional documents,“ said a police official. TNN





Source : http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31840&articlexml=CBSE-orders-psychometric-test-on-staff-at-all-14092017010056#

Sep 12 2017 : The Times of India (NaviMumbai)

A Scholarship For Everyone

Geeta Gandhi Kingdon

Why school vouchers are the best way to give India's children access to quality education

The Times of India has launched a generous scholarship for 400 students to access quality higher education “to nurture the next genera tion of APJ Abdul Kalams“. Laudable as such benefactions are, to achieve scale against our teeming population young people's opportunity to access good education and achieve their potential should not depend on philanthropy , but be the duty of a responsible and just government.

 

The way of giving government funding can alter the fortunes of India's children. Specifically , direct benefit transfer (DBT) or school voucher to parents would be a scholarship to every eligible child, enabling himher to attend any school of their choice whose fee is upto the monetary value specified on the voucher.

Equally importantly , voucher funding would make India's lax government schools and teachers more accountable by linking a school's funding (and thus teacher salaries) to its ability to attract and retain children.

Under the current funding structure, far from retaining children, government elementary schools have been emptying at an alarming rate: official DISE data show that between 2011 and 2016, total enrolment in government schools fell by 13 million and that in private schools rose by 17.5 million. This exodus has rendered many government schools pedagogically and economically unviable, with 40% of all government schools now having fewer than 50 students in total! Under DBT, the government gives a voucher ­ a promissory note ­ of a given monetary value, to the parent of each eligible child. If the voucher is fixed at, say, Rs 500 per month, the parent can admit their child in any school that charges fees up to that amount, but she can also supplement the voucher from her own pocket to avail a higher fee school, if she so wishes. Parents can choose any type of institution, ie private, aided or government school.

Many countries have used school vouchers to good effect, eg Colombia, Chile, the Netherlands, New Zealand, US, etc. Under a universal DBT scheme, all children are eligible for a school voucher, while under a targeted scheme, only designated groups would be eligible, eg children of `economically weaker sections'.
This kind of public scholarship to children is a radically different way of funding education. Presently government grant goes directly to schools, but under a voucher scheme it would go indirectly to schools via parents. Secondly , vouchers represent a per-student grant to schools, rather than the current `block grant' whereby each government-funded school gets a lump sum (usually equal to its total teacher-salary bill) irrespective of the number of children in the school ­ which is a major cause of inefficiency .

The power of vouchers is that a voucher-bearing parent, like a fee-paying parent, can hold the school accountable because she has the power to deprive the school of its revenue by taking her child (and thus the voucher) away to a different school, if she is dissatisfied with the quality effort of a school. Under voucher funding, schools are compelled to compete with each other to attract children, and thus have to give good results.

A voucher scheme can also be made an agent of greater equity in education, with the voucher value being set inverse to family income, ie with poorer children getting higher value vouchers, instead of a uniform voucher value for all children.

The government has two main objections to DBT in education. The first is its belief that in backward rural areas private schools will not come up, even with the lure of government voucher funding.However, this fear is unfounded. National Sample Survey data 2014-15 show that median fee in private unaided elementary schools was Rs 292 pm in rural and Rs 542 pm in urban India, and that 25% children in unaided schools of India paid a `total course fee' of less than Rs 200 pm (57% paid less than Rs 500 pm, 82% paid less than Rs 1,000 pm and a mere 3.6% paid more than Rs 2,500 pm). Given that 25% private school managers charge less than Rs 200 pm, even a relatively low value voucher of Rs 500 pm will represent untold riches in remote rural areas, and is likely to produce a strong supply-side response.

MHRD's second problem with DBT funding of schools is that the many emptying government schools ­ with their few enrolled students ­ would get too little revenue under voucher funding to pay their current teachers. Here, the central government and many state governments are already contemplating school `consolidation', ie merging the tiny government schools with bigger government schools nearby , and redeploying teachers from underenrolled to over-enrolled schools.

While in the transition phase there may be a glut of teachers to be paid above the voucher revenue, with natural wastage (retirement), the problem will disappear over time. Another solution may be to set a different voucher amount for government schools and a different one for private schools since government schools' per pupil expenditure in 2017-18 is around Rs 2,500 pm in primary and Rs 3,300 pm in upper-primary classes (see Tamil Nadu's July 2017 gazette), which is several times the median private school fee level.
Knotty problems require bold solutions. Tinkering at the edges of the system is simply not going to improve the quality of schooling, nor will the provision of good inputs (infrastructure and trained staff) do the job. The elephant in the room is school and teacher accountability , and DBT voucher funding tackles that while also providing a scholarship to all the children of India.

 (The writer is Chair of Education Economics, University College, London)

Source : http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31840&articlexml=A-Scholarship-For-Everyone-12092017014032#

JEE, NEET cannot gauge aptitude

Standardised tests eliminate the need for many exams, but these are arbitrary and opaque

SAnitha, who has reportedly committed suicide recently, had failed to make it through NEET (National Entrance-cum-Eligibility Test), an exam now taken nationally to decide who can study medicine and who can’t. NEET is conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). Anitha who had scored exceptionally well in her Class XII exam of Tamil Nadu (TN) Board, failed to perform well in NEET. The state government had tried to resist NEET, and for a year it succeeded in providing TN students an exemption from NEET.

Following Anitha’s death, protests against NEET have been held in Chennai. Anitha, a daily-wage labourer’s daughter, apparently thought that her hard work at school would let her move on in life. She had even approached the court and argued that she couldn’t afford coaching.

Her story reminds us how exhausting and irrational our selection procedures are. In principle, NEET is a good idea as it makes multiple state-wise tests unnecessary. But conducting a professionally competent NEET is nothing less than a fantasy today. No institution has the capacity to standardise a test to make it fair and suitable for a country as diverse as India. Translation of items into different languages itself poses a formidable challenge.

CBSE is unfairly burdened with carrying out a mind-boggling variety of tests all year round. It is widely believed that CBSE is tougher than state boards; no one knows what that means. Basically, all entrance tests now serve to eliminate. NEET doesn’t test aptitude for medicine; nor does the joint entrance test (JEE) judge a student’s potential for engineering.

There is little we can do to examine the validity of any exam today, including these mega tests like NEET and JEE. The mantras of transparency and accountability have made no impact on the exam machinery. In fact, people think that applying accountability to exams would dilute standards. So, all Boards maintain silence over how they evaluate answer sheets.

Entrance tests are usually based on multiple-choice questions whose quality is mostly so poor that only someone coached in cramming can crack them. Questions in board exams require short answers. They are judged against model answers given to evaluators.

A few years ago, CBSE had introduced a procedure for seeking re-evaluation. This year, when a political science student applied for re-evaluation, she was told that the provision had recently been withdrawn. When she went to court and sought her answer sheet, it revealed how she had been marked. Here are two examples.

A one-mark question was: “How far do you agree with the statement that cultural globalisation is dangerous not only for poor countries for the entire globe?” Her answer was: “I do not agree with this statement as cultural globalisation leads to enhanced cultures with newer combinations arising from external influences, cultural heterogenisation and greater influence of all cultures.”

She was given zero for this answer. The model or ‘correct’ answer used by evaluators was: “Yes, Cultural globalisation does lead to cultural homogenisation which affects all countries as it causes shrinkage of the rich and diverse cultural heritage of the entire globe”. If you compare the two, you will conclude that the girl was punished for her creativity.

But in this case, her answer was closer to what the textbook, ‘Contemporary World Politics’ (Chapter 9, p. 143), says: “It would be a mistake to assume that cultural consequences of globalisation are only negative. Cultures are not static things and all cultures accept outside influences all the time… Sometimes external influences simply enlarge our choices, sometimes they modify our culture without overwhelming the traditional.”

In many other questions, she loses marks because her answer is slightly longer than the desired answer or differently worded. But there are answers where she is spot on, and still loses marks.

For instance, in analysing the biggest constraints on American hegemony, a 6-mark question, the desired answer mentions the ‘institutionalised architecture’ of the American state based on the division of power, free press and NATO. The candidate mentions all three, but uses words like ‘engineering of the government’ instead ‘architecture of the state’. For such difference of vocabulary, she gets three out of six. Clearly, she was expected to cram the exact words from some exam guide.

This is just one example exhibiting the arbitrary and opaque nature of our exam system. Much has changed in India since the late 19th century when the public exam system was put in place. Minor reforms have occurred, but its core remains solidly opaque.


12 Sep 2017 | Mumbai | Krishna Kumar is former director, NCERT The views expressed by the author are personal KRishNA KUMAR

Source: http://paper.hindustantimes.com/epaper/viewer.aspx

• 12 Sep 2017 | Mumbai | Neelam Pandey neelam.pandey@hindustantimes.com

NCERT devises new test to help kids opt for suitable stream 

 

NEWDELHI: The National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has developed a test to identify the potential and inherent abilities of children to help them zero in on the streams they should opt for in higher classes.

The council’s department of psychology and foundation of education is finalising the norms for the test, to be taken in Class 9, and is already conducting trial runs at regional institutes.

NCERT director Hrushikesh Senapaty confirmed they were working on such a test, and it will be implemented soon.

“We should not call this a test, because tests put an unnecessary burden on students. This is more about judging your aptitude. Though some students with problem-solving skills may excel in mathematics, that’s not to say they won’t do well in English. But this exercise will help them discover the techniques they already posses. This is no textbook-based test. It will check the perceptive ability and mechanical reasoning of students, among other factors,” said a senior NCERT official, on the condition of anonymity. 

Officials said the test will be made available to students at the individual-level too, at a later stage. The exercise will be divided into verbal and non-verbal sections, and possess seven sub-tests. Besides testing the verbal, mechanical, abstract, spatial and perceptive rationale of the child, it will use diagrams and figures to assess his/her reasoning abilities. “Students, for instance, will be given a pattern and asked to find out how it will shape up through various steps taken in accordance with logic. As far as verbal reasoning is concerned, they will be initially assessed on the basis of language – from synonyms and meanings of proverbs to overall aptitude,” the official said. The test will focus on job-related abilities too, he added. 

 

The test module is being tested at regional institutes of the NCERT, including Kendriya Vidyalayas.

Sources said the council has already held discussions with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), so it can be implemented in affiliated schools. “We will provide the CBSE with all the tools and materials for the test, so it can be conducted at the convenience of its schools. We should be able to finish preparing it by the end of this year, so it can be put to use from 2018,” said another NCERT official. “Norms for the test are being finalised and tested. Though it has not been conceptualised as an online test so far, we hope to achieve that too. The test will run for 1.30 hours,” the official said, adding that the exercise will act as an “additional tool” aimed at helping students make the right choice.

Other states are welcome to approach the NCERT if they also wish to make use of the test.

Source: http://paper.hindustantimes.com/epaper/viewer.aspx

Blue Whale: CBSE asks schools to instal firewalls

Tanushree Bhatia | Updated: Sep 6, 2017, 08:15 AM IST, DNA

 

Advisory comes after rise in cases of students falling prey to the online game

In the wake of the controversial 'Blue Whale Challenge' reportedly becoming popular among kids in India, the CBSE has issued advisory to schools asking them to install firewalled network.

The advisory titled, 'Guidelines for safe and effective use of Internet and digital technologies in schools and school buses', lists what schools need to take care of. One of the important advice is to avoid digital images or video of students and teachers on website of schools.

Most schools in the city, off late, have been putting photographs of best performers or activities on Facebook and other social media platforms. While the photographs and videos are essentially being put for parents' consumption, the board has taken a stringent view as cyberbullying cases are on the rise. On the advisory, schools said installing firewalls is expensive.

Surender Sachdeva, principal, DPS Bopal, said, "Though CBSE keeps issuing guidelines from time to time, this one comes in the wake of video games like Blue Whale Challenge. We live in times when social media abuse can turn out to be dangerous. Many a times, messages on WhatsApp are misleading. Similarly, Instagram, Twitter and other such platforms can be used for bullying and challenge impressionable minds."

Ruchi Chaudhary, Managing Trustee, Shanku's Foundation, Divine Child International School (DCIS), said, "We have a cyber room since two years in our school that restricts websites that we do not want our students to access. It is a good thing by the board to issue advisory but I feel a similar advisory should be issued for parents and children as well."

Manan Choksi, Executive Director, Udgam School for Children, said, "The advisory seems to be adapted from the Western culture where one needs permission to put photographs on website or making them public. However, the situation in India is different. Here the parents want photographs of their children to be put on various platforms to rest their own anxiety. With the present advisory, schools can blur the photographs if parents wish so. At Udgam, we share more photographs on a more secure platform — our school mobile app."

THE GUIDELINE

• The advisory titled, ‘Guidelines for safe and effective use of Internet and digital technologies in schools and school buses’, lists what schools need to take care of.
• One of the important advice given by the CBSE is to avoid digital images or video of students and teachers on website of schools.

Source: http://www.dnaindia.com/ahmedabad/report-blue-whale-cbse-asks-schools-to-instal-firewalls-2543307

Sep 05 2017 : The Times of India (NaviMumbai)

 

the speaking tree - 

Teaching And Learning: A Two-Way Process

Christopher Mendonca





The tradition of holding our teachers in reverence is steeped in traditions of the East. It grew out of an acknowledgement that learning is not something to be hoarded; it is to be passed on. The wisdom that the sages of old acquired was synonymous with knowledge in as much as it meant not just scriptural knowledge or assimilation of information but knowledge gained from experience of life's lessons. Since life embraces all without distinction, its lessons become a shared experience. In this experience the teacher and student enter into a relationship in which both are students and teachers of one another.There is no room for superiority . In its origins, all teaching was ultimately spiritual. The advent of modern science has tended to blur the lines of congruence between knowledge and wisdom. Acquiring `knowledge' is now synonymous with acquisition of power. Aren't we confusing knowledge with information?

Being well read or well informed need not necessarily put you above those who have been denied access to information and education. Some highly educated people do share their knowledge but often, it is an act of condescension. We sometimes forget that “education“ etymologically is a “drawing out“ from within. Far from being a social concern, it sometimes degenerates into a financial enterprise.

Some of us may on this day loathe the teachers in our lives who seemed to delight in pointing out our mistakes and correcting them. But it is because of their vigilance and concern that many of us have learnt from our mistakes and become better at what we do.

The guru-sishya parampara of ancient times was a great tradition that enabled holistic education and made possible for teachers and students to find dedicated time to grow in their relationship in the teaching-learning process. Today's education system may not afford forging of such long term bonding; however, we do remember our teachers and we might even make the time to send a personal note to a teacher who became a significant role model in our childhood.Some of us will think of sending a bouquet of flowers to the teacher, who, from among many , touched our hearts, not so much by what they taught us, but by empower ing us to be fully human.

A personal visit from a past student is known to have warmed the hearts of many a retired teacher. Beyond exam inations, unit tests, the measurement of ability, the grades and percentages that indicate only how effectively we can reproduce information stored in the hard-disks of our brain, we somehow remember only those teachers who went beyond them. These are the teachers who transcended the `self ' and whose words and deeds are etched in our memory only because in so doing, they enabled and empowered us to transcend ourselves.

These are the teachers who made us realise that the signpost is not the road.They showed by example that the journey itself was as important ­ or even more important ­ as the destination.Refusing to be identified only with the journey , or the goal, they walked with us in spirit as we negotiated the many twists and turns of life, leading us with compassion and inspiring us to never give up.

In the course of teaching, teachers too learn from students just as students learn from their teachers. And when teaching and learning become shared experiences, it becomes evident that it is a two-way process.
Today is Teachers' Day

 
Source Link :  http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31840&articlexml=the-speaking-tree-Teaching-And-Learning-A-Two-05092017014016#

Sep 01 2017 : The Times of India (NaviMumbai)

Outgoing home secy is new CAG; Sunil Arora to be 3rd EC

New Delhi | TIMES NEWS NETWORK





17 New Secys, Under Secys Also Appointed 

 

The government on Thursday designated outgoing home secretary Rajiv Mehrishi as the new Comptroller & Auditor General, while former information and broadcasting secretary Sunil Arora was appointed as the third election commissioner. This came along with the appointment of 17 new secretaries and additional secretaries.

 

Mehrishi got a new job within hours of demitting office as home secretary and will take over as CAG once Shashi Kant Sharma's tenure ends on September 24. The 1978-batch IAS officer from the Rajasthan cadre was finance secretary. On the day he was to superannuate from service, he was given a twoyear term as home secretary .He will have a three year term as CAG.

Arora, his colleague from Rajasthan, will fill the vacancy in Nirvachan Sadan and will restore Election Commission 's status to a full Commission, with A K Joti as CEC and O P Rawat as the other Election Commissioner. Arora's arrival may lead EC to initiate hearing in the office of profit case against 20 AAP MLAs from Delhi. After Rawat recused himself from the case and Zaidi retired, there was a view in the Commission that a fresh hearing date may be given only after the second election commissioner is in, ensuring that the case is heard by a two-member Bench comprising CEC and the new EC.

Among the 17 senior level appointments, the government designated Asha Ram Sihag, an IAS officer from the Himachal Pradesh cadre, as the new heavy industry secretary . Jharkhand's Rajiv Kumar, a 1984-batch officer will be the new financial services secretary. Kumar is currently establishment officer, in-charge of key government appointments. He has had a long stint in the finance ministry, handling state finances.

Anita Karwal named CBSE chairperson

Anita Karwal, additional secretary in the ministry of human resource development, was named chairperson of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Thursday. She will replace Rajesh Kumar Chaturvedi, who has been named director general of the National Skill Development Agency. At the HRD ministry, Karwal, a Gujarat cadre IAS officer, was responsible for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. Chaturvedi, a Madhya Pradesh cadre IAS officer, was appointed CBSE chief in July 2016 till 2020. In his one-year tenure, the board did away with Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation system as well as made the Class X board mandatory once again. Another controversial CBSE decision was doing away with the provision of re-evaluation which resulted in a number of students approaching court.The Board had to reopen the re-evaluation process following a court order. TNN

Source: http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31840&articlexml=Outgoing-home-secy-is-new-CAG-Sunil-Arora-01092017014042#

Sep 02 2017 : The Times of India (NaviMumbai)

NCERT plans pre-school model

Manash Gohain | New Delhi





The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) is set to come up with a model for pre-school education in 2018.

 

A national consultation on sustainability in the context of early childhood education (ECE) is slated for November this year.

Making the announcement during the 57th Foundation Day celebrations on Friday , NCERT director Hrushikesh Senapaty said a district-level national achievement survey involving more than 30 lakh children, a first of its kind, would be conducted on November 13. The NCERT has regional institutes of education (RIE) where demonstration multi-purpose schools run pre-school programmes.

These are the laboratories for creating a framework for pre-school education in the country .

The NCERT also runs a nursery school at IIT-Delhi, also a laboratory for the preschool experiment.

“The council is working towards creating a model for pre-school education. It should be ready by next year.And we expect this model to be implemented across the country ,“ said Senapaty. Union minister of state for human resource development Upendra Kushwaha said though some question the quality of NCERT textbooks, “it is by studying these very books that students of Kendriya Vidyalayas and Navodaya Vidyalayas have brought laurels by scoring 95%-98% marks in the CBSE examinations every year“.

NCERT spokesman Hemant Kumar said preschools in four RIEs, except in Shillong, opened in 2008 while the IIT Nursery school was opened in 1966.

“The pedagogy followed is play-based and a developmentally appropriate approach is followed... The ECE programme helps young children transit smoothly to Class I,“ he said.





Source: http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31840&articlexml=NCERT-plans-pre-school-model-02092017011016#

CBSE Board exam: Marks not likely to be spiked next year, moderation continues

An inter-board working group has decided to take the step in order to bring uniformity in the standard of question papers of different boards.

education Updated: Sep 04, 2017 11:36 IST

Neelam Pandey | Hindustan Times, New Delhi

Spiking of marks in 10th and 12 class board exams is likely to stop from next year. However, school boards will continue with a moderation policy to remove ambiguity and difficulty level in different question sets and offer a level playing field in the evaluation process.

Mark sheets of students will mention whether they have been awarded grace marks.

These recommendations have been made by the inter-board working group headed by the CBSE’s outgoing chairman RK Chaturvedi. The inter-board working group has members from Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Telangana, Chattisgarh, Manipur and ICSE boards.

A decision was taken regarding this in a meeting on August 28. The recommendations will now be sent to the Union HRD ministry for adoption by various states. The group was formed to look into the issues related to the moderation policy.

To ensure uniformity in the question papers of various boards, the group also decided that the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will develop model sample question papers that will be circulated to all the boards.

“The sample question papers will help states decide how many questions should be difficult, how many should be easy and what type of questions should be used. Depending on the state’s requirement they will use the sample questions to develop their own. This will bring in greater uniformity in the evaluation system,” said one of the members of the group.

There was consensus amongst all the members to do away with spiking of marks as it is not a true reflection of a student’s performance.

“In the meeting it was decided that all the decisions taken earlier during April related to moderation are accepted by all the working group members. The recommendations are being sent to the Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry. These recommendations have to be unanimously accepted by all the state boards in the country. For this purpose, MHRD has to play a proactive role,” said a source.

The group has also suggested that moderation will continue to ensure appropriate compensation is provided to students in case there are differences in the difficulty levels of question papers and overall evaluation process.

However, state boards will have to post their moderation policy on their websites in a transparent manner. Sources further said that grace marks will continue and though the mark sheet will specify if a student has passed due to grace marks, it will not mention the extra marks awarded to him or her.

Grace marks are given in cases where a student narrowly misses the passing mark. “Students who pass without grace marks will at least get some priority through this. At the same time rather than failing a student who narrowly misses the marks such students will also be passed,” said one of the members of the group.
The moderation policy allows board to give students extra marks. But some state boards used the system to increase marks of their students, spiking the overall pass percentage and thereby triggering widespread resentment. It was also decided that the qualifying marks will be 33 out 100 as some states follow different passing marks such as 38, 40 among others. This is also being done to bring standardization in the process.

In the moderation policy of the CBSE there is a clause which allows the board to maintain “a near parity of pass percentage of candidates in the current year vis-a-vis preceding years, subject-wise and overall”. Sources said this, at times, leads to inflation of marks, which is not a true reflection of a student’s performance. The practice is followed by a number of other boards including Tamil Nadu. States such as Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra and Bihar do not have a moderation policy. But others, including Goa, Tamil Nadu and Uttarakhand, use the policy to improve their pass percentage.

It has also been decided that CBSE will use only one set of questions rather than three which it currently uses. Currently, there is an All India set, one for Delhi and another used in other countries.
In CBSE, moderation is done till overall marks reach 95 in each subject. The benefit of moderation is not given to students who score 95 and above.

The CBSE had earlier decided to scrap the moderation policy to “remove arbitrariness and inflation of marks,” but a Delhi High Court had directed that the moderation policy be applied for this academic session. Following this, the board took a decision not to make any changes to its moderation policy this year. Over 18,000 schools across the country are affiliated to the CBSE.

Source: http://www.hindustantimes.com/education/spiking-of-marks-in-school-boards-exams-likely-to-stop-from-next-year/story-xwRuZljxAT18FT6HPWEk2O.html