All 10th graders qualify for higher education

VIJAYAWADA: All the students who appeared for SSC exams for 2019-20 and 2020-21 academic years have been declared passed. Announcing the grades of the students here on Friday, the Minister for Education Audimulapu Suresh said, as the marks of SSC are considered a basic qualification for several competitive exams, jobs and higher studies, the same have been released today. For the year 2020-21, a total of 6,26,981 students including 3,04,036 girl students have passed, while 6,37,354 students including 3,10,601 girl students have passed in the academic year 2019-2020, he said. 

The Minister explained that as per the recommendation of a High-Power Committee headed by retired IAS officer Chaya Ratan, grades for the academic year 2020-21 were calculated based on written examinations (formative assessments) conducted internally. Seventy per cent weightage was given for written exams while the remaining 30 per cent was assigned to project work (for 10 marks), handwriting in the note books (for 10 marks) and students’ response to contemporary issues (for 10 marks).

For academic year 2019-20, as three formative and one summative assessment exams were conducted, grades will be determined by calculating 50 per cent marks for formative assessment and remaining 50 per cent for summative assessment. Students can check their results at the official website, www.bse.ap.gov.in  School headmasters can download the Memorandum of Subject-wise Performance using their school login credentials and hand over the attested copies of the same to the students. “We were prepared to conduct the exams for SSC following all Covid protocols and precautions, as we are aware of the importance of the exams and the grades. However, the circumstances were such that conducting exams was not possible and hence, they had to be cancelled.” 

However, following requests from experts, students and their parents and considering that merit students would be at a loss if no grade was determined and that their future prospects would be in jeopardy, a high-power committee was constituted to determine a method to calculate grades. Accordingly grades were given, the Minister said.