State board colleges fume over high CBSE scores

Nagpur: A spectacular jump in the number of high scorers in CBSE Std XII has left state junior colleges fuming. They now see the ‘perception’ gap widening. The number of students scoring 90% and above in CBSE XII have more than doubled compared to last year.
Vidarbha Junior College Teachers Association (VJUCTA) said there is absolutely no level playing field for state board students and now they will approach education minister Varsha Gaikwad over the issue.
As many as 1.57 lakh CBSE XII students scored above 90% as compared to 94,299 last year. Further analysis of those scoring 95% and above showed that the number jumped to 38,686 this year compared to 17,693 in 2019.
Ashok Gavhankar, general secretary of VJUCTA, alleged that this reeks of deliberate strategy to inflate marks. He said, “One can understand an organic 10% rise in high scorers considering that syllabus gets updated or coaching/tuition classes refining their teaching methods. But doubling is unheard of. I believe CBSE is purposely being extremely liberal with evaluation and that has led to such inflated numbers.”
Now, VJUCTA has decided to take up the issue with state education department. “We will demand an inquiry into this issue because our state board students are getting demoralized. Parents feel that there is something wrong with HSC syllabus and slowly the shift towards CBSE will increase,” said Gavhankar.
He added that in HSC evaluation, the process was very strict. “If any student scores more than 90%, then a third person checks that particular paper. The chief moderator gets involved and scans through every answer. And all the time, all three evaluators are looking to cut marks,” said Gavhnakar.
Ravindra Fadnavis, secretary of Maharashtra Rajya Shikshan Sanstha Mahamandal, said this is an alarming situation. “Our HSC students appeared for all papers while their students missed out on a few subjects. Now, how will equalization be done? Apart from this year’s special situation, this trend of highly inflated marks is a serious issue which state government needs to look into,” said Fadnavis.