Parents and students from the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) have opposed the Maharashtra government’s move to consider only written examination marks of the two boards for the First Year Junior College (FYJC) admissions this year.

In 2017, the State board had decided to stop giving internal marks to the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) students from the academic year 2018-2019, a reason, experts and students blamed, for the dip in the scores this year.

Following a meeting with junior college principals and parents of SSC students, Education Minister Vinod Tawde had said that the State government would speak to the Union Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry about considering only the written examination marks of non-SSC students.

Stating that the government is targeting the ICSE and CBSE students to compensate the SSC students, parents and students called it a discriminatory move.

“After the decision was taken in 2017, the State sat on it for a year. Did they not know that this can happen? CBSE and ICSE students also score lesser in languages and internal assessment marks are important for every student. Not considering these marks is simply unjust now,” Sunil Chaudhuri, a parent, said.

The India-wide Parents Association (IWPA) said this move will set a wrong precedent and that they will most likely write to the HRD ministry on Thursday and knock on the door of the court if need be.

Anubha Sahay, president, IWPA, said, “The ICSE and CBSE patterns are similar across the country. Maharashtra cannot bring in change as other States may also try to replicate this. What the State government can do is add the internal marks now to provide relief to the SSC students. ICSE and CBSE students prepare hard for not only written exams but also orals. Depriving them of these marks suddenly is very unfair.”

The association said they will also write to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and the Bharatiya Janata Party president seeking Mr. Tawde’s resignation.