Chandrapur: Tribal school says its 70% students to fail as per CBSE Std X marks policy

NAGPUR: A CBSE-affiliated tribal school in Chandrapur district finds itself in a spot of bother due to the Std X marks tabulation policy, as almost 70% of its students won’t pass, says the school if it follows the guidelines.
This problem is unique to the Dewada-based Eklavya Model Residential School because its first batch for Std X appeared in 2020 and their performance was dismal with less than 10% students passing.This school, however, faces other unique challenges because of students coming from remote areas with not much exposure.
Since theory exams have been cancelled this year, CBSE has adopted a comprehensive marks tabulation policy which aims to provide a fair assessment of students, in which past performance of the school’s Std X results is a key part. As a rule of thumb, the past three years results are looked into and the best performing year becomes the ‘reference year’.
RS Borekar, principal of the school, claims that’s where the problem lies for them. “The marks we give now cannot deviate much from the reference year. But our last year batch’s performance was not good and I find it unfair that the 2021 batch has to suffer because of that. If I implement the guidelines mentioned by CBSE, then 70% of my students won’t pass,” said Borekar.
She is convinced that CBSE’s policy to provide fair assessment has made it difficult for a unique case such as her school. “Those schools whose first batch is in 2021 can avail of the ‘district average’ marks. Those with two or more batches have a choice in reference year. The worst off are people like us who have just one year as part of the academic history,” said Borekar.
Even though last year only four students passed (out of 53) during summer exam, Borekar’s team worked with the remaining ones. “Another 20 students then cleared the compartment exam which was held later. So, effectively, almost 50% of the students cleared the exam,” said Borekar.
The school tried to reach out to CBSE through email and phone. Borekar said, “I spoke to the Pune regional office but they said no changes can be done as it’s a national-level policy. I have sent an email to CBSE but did not get response. They had sent numbers about help desk but I was unable to get through to anyone there.”
Borekar hopes that CBSE responds to her mail as she does not want to be the one who sees majority of her students not making the cut. “I don’t think I am ready to fill the marks in the form and upload it in the online portal,” said Borekar.
TOI tried to reach CBSE officials in this regard but didn’t get any response till filing of this report.
CBSE has given an option to students that they can reappear for a theory exam if unhappy with the marks received as a result of the policy. So, technically, all students from the school can opt for a theory paper later.