Grace marks in Kerala syllabus: HC asks govt to adopt uniform norms

KOCHI: The Kerala High Court has asked the state government to do away with the practice of awarding grace marks for students of state syllabus for participating in extra-curricular activities as well as stop awarding moderation marks.
Justice PV Asha asked the government to implement within four months the four recommendations made by Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) in 2017 in the name of ensuring quality education across all boards in India.
A petition (WP-C No. 28559/2018) filed by CBSE students Roshan Jacob of Pathanamthitta and two others through advocate P Mohandas was considered by the court. They had sought implementation of the MHRD recommendations and had alleged that students of state syllabus are being awarded 40 per cent marks for co-curricular activities and through moderation. This is giving an advantage to students of state syllabus in admissions to professional colleges, the petition had stated while seeking implementation of MHRD recommendations.
The recommendations were made by MHRD after CBSE organized a series of meetings of various functionaries of all the school education boards in the country in 2017.
It was recommended that the practice of awarding moderation marks should be done away with except in cases of ambiguity in the question paper, inter-set variation in difficulty level if multiple-sets system exists in the board, and vagaries in the evaluation process based on statistical analysis. Bunching of marks and their spiking should be completely avoided, MHRD had recommended.
The practice of awarding grace marks should continue to pass the borderline cases, MHRD had said. Importantly, MHRD had suggested that weightage of extra-curricular activities should be the same across all boards. Boards should show performance of students in extra-curricular activities separately on the marks statement rather than adding them to their scholastic performance, MHRD had advised.
Moreover, the moderation policy and quantum of moderation given should also be disclosed by all boards on their websites, recommended MHRD.
Government had informed the court that State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) is conducting a study on implementing the MHRD recommendations and a decision will be taken upon receiving the report. Therefore, more time is needed, the court was told. After considering the submissions, the court asked the government to implement the recommendations within four months.