Karnataka schools, parents welcome new SSLC, PU pass marks; educationists call it band-aid solution | Bengaluru News
Bengaluru: After the state govt notified draft rules for lowering pass marks for SSLC and II PU exams and for using internal marks for considering pass marks, schools and teachers are elated. However, educationists have called these band-aid fixes to the bigger problem.In SSLC and II PU, a student should secure only 33% of the total marks to pass. Until today, it was 35%. Moreover, the internal assessment and practicals are counted. As reported by TOI on Friday, there are changes for the practical exam too. In deviation from the existing allotment of 30 marks, the practical exam will be conducted for 20 marks. The remaining 10 marks will be awarded based on attendance, completing records, attending practicals, etc.Several schools, teachers, and parents’ associations have welcomed the move. For many, this has been a long-standing demand as other boards like CBSE have similar criteria.Rashmi Mahesh, principal secretary, department of school education and literacy, said, “The whole purpose of making this change is to provide a level playing field for our children vis-a-vis exams conducted by other central and state boards. If our results improve this time, it will be because of the efforts and programme we have implemented in terms of writing and reading exercises and not because of the change in pass marks.” However, educationists pointed out the department should focus on improving the learning outcomes of students. A prominent educationist said: “Neither increasing the pass marks nor decreasing it is a genuine solution to the problem, school education faces today. The real change is required in the curriculum as well as assessment practices — to begin with, both have to be seen as an integrated whole.”“The end of school or, in other words, school leaving certificates should be provided based on overall performance across various assessments throughout our secondary school. Basically, we need to reform our assessment practices significantly and have more authentic assessments. Till then, such band-aid solutions will be the order of the day,” he added.AS Seetharamu, a retired professor, said if the department continuously fails to promote quality and equity in quality because of faulty vision and grossly inadequate investments, then the easy alternative is to lower the bar of standards of performance/achievements. “However, from the students’ or parents’ point of view, it is good. The number of students who get branded as failures, after years of struggle at school, gets reduced. They were failures for no fault on their part, but of the suboptimal quality in the system of schooling.”The experts also pointed out the govt should get ready for a further demand in PU/degree colleges from the next academic year as the pass percentage will shoot up.Quote hangersWe welcome the govt’s move. This will bring relief to lakhs of children in the state board schools. However, we have also been demanding the first language should be evaluated at 100 marks like the rest of the subjects, instead of 125 marks. There are different first languages being offered in schools, not just Kannada — D Shashi Kumar | secretary, Associated Managements of Primary and Secondary Schools of KarnatakaWe have been fighting for this for years, we welcome it. At the same time, we request the govt to reduce the social science load. We have already made recommendations to the govt on how to simplify the question paper for the subject — Chidanand Patil | state coordinator, Social Science Teachers’ ForumFor the last two years, we have been requesting the govt to eliminate this discriminatory policy between CBSE and state board. Due to this discriminatory policy, students writing SSLC examination under the state curriculum were often treated unfairly and many parents were enrolling their children in CBSE. Now, we will see a significant increase in the results of the next SSLC examination — BN Yogananda | president, coordination committee of Karnataka Private School College Parents’ AssociationsWe urge the department to implement this policy with retrospective effect for the academic year 2024-25, covering students who appeared in Exam 1, 2, and 3 of both SSLC and II PUC. We request that the highest marks scored in any of the three attempts be considered, and students be declared as passed immediately wherever they meet the 33% aggregate, including internal marks— N Prabhakar Urs | secretary, Organisation for Unaided Recognised Schools
