Vineet Joshi, chairman of the Central Board of Secondary Education, speaks toINDIA TODAY Associate Editor PADMAPARNA GHOSH on the higher education crisis and the need for change.
Q. Is the CBSE to blame for such high cut off marks in colleges?
A. The board exam is an achievement test on a curriculum of two years. It is wrong to look at it like an entrance exam. There has to be a ranking system, which takes into account performance at school and an entrance test like we have for the IITs. That would be ideal but then how do we account for disparities in testing and marking in state boards? That's a practical problem.
Q. How and when will there be consistency among state education boards?
A. There has to be a similarity on design of question paper and marking scheme and many boards have agreed to this. Hopefully, this will be implemented in the next few years. The issue involves all 41 boards and higher education institutes and everyone needs to be on board.
Q. Why are students scoring such high marks?
A. If you look at absolute numbers, the hike is more or less the same percentage but students taking boards are increasing by 10 per cent annually. Students know the marking scheme and exact value points and as it is not a free writing exam any longer, students are better prepared. The purpose was to reduce stress.
Q. Wouldn't a grade or percentile system be better?
A. Definitely. Research shows that a 91 percenter is as good as a 100 per cent one, even in a subject like maths. But since this is a school leaving exam and the marks are considered for admission, all boards will have to agree to this. The biggest change we need is in the examination system. We have seen that after we moved Class X to grades, even teaching has become better and more learning oriented. Admissions in colleges should also take into account aspects of creative or softer skills but for that you need objective tools to measure them, which we don't have right now.
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