CBSE may not scrap moderation if state boards fail to reach consensus

New Delhi: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) may not scrap the moderation policy if state boards do not reach a consensus on the issue as its students may suffer in undergraduate admissions. Concerns over consensus among state boards was raised on Thursday at the governing body meeting of CBSE. “We are completely in favour of scrapping inflation of marks in order to maintain pass parity with previous years’ results. However, doing it without consensus from other boards will put our students in a disadvantageous position,” a senior official said. CBSE and 32 other boards had developed a consensus on scrapping of the moderation policy in a meeting on 24 April. [caption id=“attachment_3759387” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Firstpost/Naresh Sharma[/caption] However, the Delhi High Court had asked CBSE to not scrap the policy, saying it was not advisable to implement the change mid-way. CBSE was earlier believed to have been considering challenging the high court order but was advised against it by legal counsel that moving the Supreme Court may be counter-productive and could also delay results. “There is a clause in our bylaws that in order to maintain near parity of pass percentage of students vis-a-vis previous years, board can give extra marks which does not reflect the actual performance. We want to scrap this,” the official added. The Centre has also set up a panel to ensure uniform marking for students giving the Class XII exam in 2018 by asking school boards across India to stop “inflating marks” under the “often abused practice” of moderation leading to “unusually” high scores. The panel, Inter Board Working Group (IWBG), headed by CBSE chairperson Rakesh Chaturvedi with members from Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Manipur and ICSE boards – will address issues arising from the decisions taken in the April 24 meeting. The IWBG is likely to meet in July. Amid complaints by students of evaluation faults in their Class XII results, the CBSE had also set up two committees to study the loopholes in the evaluation procedure. The mandate of the two committees who are supposed to submit their report on rehaul of evaluation process by August and September, respectively, was also discussed during today’s meeting. The Governing Body also approved the board’s plan to allow Class X students to opt for a vocation subject as the sixth subject under the remodelled assessment scheme under the National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF).