Following a spate of complaints and protests from students, especially those from the Science stream, the Mumbai Divisional Board of the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education on Monday directed all the junior colleges under its purview to display the marks allotted by them on their notice boards.
The divisional board on May 28 had declared the results of the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) or Class XII. However, students have been flocking to the board’s office in Vashi with various complaints. While some claimed that the internal assessment marks have not been appropriately given to them, others said the online portal of the divisional board for applications of photocopying and re-evaluation was not working, prompting it to set up five help desks at the office for offline applications.
Numbers speak
In nearly a week since the results were declared, the board said it received 7,864 applications till June 3.
Out of the 6,087 applications received for photocopying of answer sheets, 2,303 were made offline. Another 1,777 applications were made for verifying the total scores or answers.
On Monday too, students flocked to the board office to protest. Nationalist Congress Party MLA Jitendra Awhad also met the chairman.
Looking at the confusion among students and complaints regarding discrepancies in the marks, the board issued a circular on Monday. It asked principles of junior colleges to display on notice boards the oral, internal and practical examination marks of students who appeared for the HSC exam this year.
Sharad Khandagle, secretary, Mumbai divisional board, wrote to State Education Minister Vinod Tawde on Monday saying a large number of applications the board has received were from the previous year and nearly 80 teachers have been invited for verification of the papers.
“The pattern of the examination for Class XII has changed this year. The question paper was prepared based on the entire curriculum. The question of the substitute alternatives had been reduced, so the students had to focus on the entire curriculum. The evaluation was done in a new way too, so the science students may have scored less in comparison to the other three streams,” he said.
Krishnakumar Patil, chairman (additional charge), Mumbai divisional board, said that the office verified several complaints made by the students that turned to be incorrect.
“Looking at the spate of complaints, we verified around 50 instances where we saw that the college had given internal marks appropriately to the students. So, the claims made by those students about colleges not having given internal marks were incorrect. Yet, for further complaints to be resolved at the base level itself, we have asked colleges to display the marks given, so students can have a look themselves,” Mr. Patil said.
Mr. Awhad, meanwhile, criticised the board for being able to give only 136 photocopies five days after the applications were filed. “This shoddy way of checking shows gross negligence on the board’s part. As far as I know, in the past five days, six students have attempted suicide and three took their lives. Who should be held responsible for these deaths?” he asked.
He said that only after the protest by students and after he met the board, has it come up with the circular that every school has to put up the internal marks of the students on the notice board. “I don’t think any school would have given less marks to their own students. Now the board just has to handover the photocopies and the children will then get to know their marks,” Mr. Awhad said.
Meanwhile parents of the aggrieved students are trying to meet Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to discuss the issues.
(With inputs from Raina Assainar)