Now, CBSE students not to get ‘fail’ tag in board exam

Nagpur: If one goes purely by semantics, then you can’t fail in CBSE exams. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has decided to replace the term ‘fail’ with ‘Essential Repeat’ in all documents issued to students from now on.
Many say this is a good move by the central board, as it goes beyond than just ‘softening the blow’.
Sumathi Venugopalan, principal of Centre Point School (Wardhaman Nagar), said, “You never know which word will affect the child negatively.Like the use of a red pen symbolizes something which can be detrimental for the student. So, I do believe that CBSE has taken a good initiative here.”
Aruna Rao, principal of Central India Public School (Kamptee Road) said that the negativity attached to the word fail had to go. “Conveying the same thing in positive words will give a ray of hope to the students. This motivation might work to improvise performance the next time,” said Rao.
Medical practitioner and adolescent counsellor Dr Rajiv Mohta said labels can have a long-lasting impact. “That impact lasts for a very long period as that kind of thought has been imposed by society since childhood. If this label is being removed at an early age, it will probably have a positive impact on children,” said Dr Mohta.
Supantha Bhattacharyya, a senior academician who teaches English at Hislop College, said linguistics can have long-ranging impact. “Education psychologists believe that unforgiving qualifiers like ‘failed’, ‘unsuccessful’, ‘compartmental’ etc on the mark sheet can severely impact students. This can also adversely affect their ability to cope with stress and lead to serious mental issues.
“Subconscious trauma may develop into pathological examination phobia. Clinical depression is another likely possibility,” said Bhattacharyya.
CBSE students Raunak Yadav, Manthan Ronghe and Pratik Pathak agreed that ‘fail’ was a very demotivating word. They said, “Students get affected due to it and changing the term slightly will be beneficial.”