Mahatme on panel to review SSC internal marks decision

NAGPUR: After facing flak from students, parents and academicians for scrapping of internal marks in this summer’s SSC board exam, the state education board has constituted a committee to review the change. The committee, to be headed by state’s education commissioner, will study how evaluation is done in CBSE, ICSE, IGCSE etc and then submit a report by July 19.
The state education department issued a GR on Tuesday citing existence of internal marks in other boards as key reason for reviewing its controversial decision.
Manisha Mahatme, a senior academician and teacher at St Joseph’s convent junior college, is the only person from Vidarbha to be nominated on the committee. Mahatme said, “We will work within the parameters given to us and give our suggestions on the information sought. I will be going through the evaluation policies of other boards in detail and compare them to what we have at state board.”
The sharp increase in failure rate in 2019 SSC exam was the result of internal marks being scrapped in languages and social science subjects. This meant students could no more count on 20% of their marks coming from the school via internal evaluation. With students needing to score everything from the theory paper alone, Nagpur division saw its passing rate slump to an eight-year low of 67.27%. The scene was similar across other divisional boards in state where passing percentages hit record lows.
This fall led to an outrage among schools and parents who blamed the education department for changing evaluation policies without consulting all stakeholders. The protests rocked the recently concluded state assembly session, with the school education minister Ashish Shelar having to face questions from public representatives.
Schools too stepped up the pressure as the tough passing criteria was likely to lead an exodus to CBSE schools. In fact, for the first time ever schools have come together to fight against ‘evaluation’ related issues by declaring July 18 as ‘Black Day’ when they will demand internal marks to be brought back.
Rajendra Dayma, president of Independent English Schools Trustees Association (IESA), said, “We welcome the government’s decision to form a committee and review the internal marks policy. However, it would have been more prudent to include stakeholders before such a decision was taken. Ultimately it all led to chaos and protests from all quarters and now within a year the government is being asked to roll back its decision.”