The overrated results of CBSE

The overrated results of CBSE

India is the 7^th largest the country in terms of area and 2^nd largest in terms of population. Most of this population is youth, i.e, those who belong to the age group of 15 to 24 years. As a result of which a huge number of these people are students. More than 40 crore students are there in India. Hence it is not wrong to say that we live in a country of scholars.

This is one of the reasons why we can say that India is a country of Scholars.

But despite there is such a humongous number of students, the education system still needs significant corrections in its education policies and working methodologies.

Recently we saw that the results of the secondary and high secondary students of Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) was announced. Students study round the clock to perform their best in these exams, but what we saw this time was really unexpected.

“More than 38,000 students scored above 95 % marks in high secondary education.”

It is well known that the students study under high pressure and this time the Coronavirus pandemic added to the tensions. This pandemic was followed by a country-wide lockdown and all amidst the exam.

Some students were able to write the exams of all of their subjects but a lot of them didn’t even had the chance to sit in the examination hall and write the answers that they had been preparing really hard for a very long time.

They were all worried about what will happen next. However, the students were not the only ones who were under high pressure. The students, schools, education system, and the education board all were riding the same boat in this dense storm.

Now the education system had to come up with a solution. A solution that would clear the mist, which would ease the pressure on everyone, and so they came up with one.

India is a country where farmer’s loans are waved but the irrigation system is not improved. Where instant solutions are framed as per the conditions. And these short term instant solutions often stagnate the growth and hence comprise with the long term goals.

A similar thing happened in these examinations. The subjects that the students were unable to write the exams of, were graded as per their performances in the exams that they wrote. The maximum of the marks that they scored in the subjects they didn’t miss was awarded for the exams they missed.

For example: If a student wrote missed his economics subject and got 98 marks as the maximum marks among the exams he was able to write, then he was awarded 98 marks in economics too.

Along with this, the marking scheme was also very lenient. Which resulted in the extraordinary results of the students.

This solution really brought smiles over the face of the students as well as the parents when they a mark sheet with over 95% percentile, but they forgot the fact that as so many students (above 38,000) got a similar result increased the competition they will face in the future during their college admissions.

Many Indian universities among which The University of Delhi is one take admissions majorly on the basis of the marks they scored in their 10+2 board exams. Now so many students scored so high in their exams but the seats in the universities are still limited increased the competition to secure admissions exponentially.

Now the cutoff marks for admission are definitely going to be much higher than the usual. During this, a slight change in some small decimals will make a drastic change in the admission process.

Not only the admissions are affected by this but the qualifications of the students can also be questions as the scores they received were based on the situation and not on their performances. This will affect their career opportunities too.

If the students are unable to get admission in his preferred institute even after studying so hard, it breaks him. It put a high mental strain on their mind, and when they are unable to handle all this pressure, they quit.

While some students were overrated there are also students who missed their best subject and were awarded through their weak subject. This factor will also change the life of such students.

Such Pandemic are natural or intentionally manmade is up to the investigation but the decisions that are made in such a situation should be such that along with tackling the present scenario they don’t affect the future in a severe way.

-Jatin Kumar