Centre Vindicates Quint Report, Calls CBSE Marks Hike “Illogical”

The court said CBSE’s decision to scrap the moderation policy will have a drastic effect on the students.

Students appearing for their board exams in Agartala. (Photo: PTI)

A day after the Delhi High Court asked the CBSE to moderate the marks of this year’s Class 12 board exams, the Union HRD Ministry backed the board saying that it is unfair to hike students’ marks, as CNN-News18 reported.

It’s wrong on part of the school boards to inflate marks…awarding of grace marks has logic but hiking of marks has no logic.

Prakash Javadekar

On 24 April, the board had decided to scrap its controversial ‘moderation’ policy, which is criticised for increasing marks of different students by different amounts, resulting in an unfair and unequal system of marking.

Read the details of how both the CBSE and the ISC, two of the country’s biggest board exams, tamper with students’ marks, in this report by The Quint: Exclusive: How CBSE, ISC Cheated You by Moderating Marks Unfairly.

The HRD ministry has decided to seek legal opinion on the Delhi High Court order asking the board to continue with moderation policy, as Hindustan Times reported.

Also Read: Delhi HC Orders CBSE to Moderate 2017’s Class 12 Board Marks

The court on Tuesday asked the CBSE to continue with the policy in this academic year as it was in place when the examination forms were submitted.

The High Court had on Monday termed the board's decision to scrap its 'moderation policy' as ‘unfair and irresponsible’ and had asked why it cannot be implemented from next year.

The petition, filed by Rakesh Kumar and advocate Ashish Verma in the Delhi High Court, argued that states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh have decided to implement the policy change only from 2018, and hence the students from these states would fare better than those from Delhi and other states.

The decision of the CBSE ‘would have a drastic effect on the students,’ the court had said. The future course of action and the decision over results will be announced by CBSE by 5.30 pm.

All attempts are being made to ensure results are not delayed. But a number of states have already declared results without doing moderation so there is still confusion about the entire issue.

HRD Ministry source

The CBSE, along with 31 other boards, had decided to do away with the marks moderation policy last month.

Also Read: An Honest A-Z Guide of Life of a Class XII Board Exam Student