CBSE Asks State Boards To Stop Awarding Extra Marks

Lucknow: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Saturday disapproved the introduction of the moderation system by several state boards to match the liberal marking scheme followed by the national boards.

Speaking to Hindustan Times, CBSE chairman Anurag Tripathi said they have written to the state boards to stop such practices.

“It does not help. Hopefully, they will stop doing this from the upcoming board exams,” he said.

Moderation is a process of adding or subtracting marks from the total scores depending on the level of questions set and improving board results, among others.

It has become more prevalent over the last decade, or so, to match central boards such as CBSE and ICSE, thanks to the lenient marking systems adopted by them.

Tripathi, however, found no fault with the marking pattern followed by them. Asked to explain the rationale behind awarding high marks in papers like English where students have even scored 100 per cent, he said there is “no harm” in giving full marks if the answer is written to one’s satisfaction.

“There is a mental block among people that students cannot score 100% in Literature. My appeal to the country’s best teachers is to write a model answer to a literature question that can help earn full marks,” he told HT.

He said CBSE is organising a conference of 1500 educationists at New Delhi in November to find ways to make the learning process more joyful.

He said school principals should take it as a challenge to attract at least 10 per cent of the good students towards the teaching profession.

CBSE