Monday, 4 July 2011

Study in chaos

Various loopholes in the Central Board of Secondary Education's (CBSE) decision to conduct two different examinations for Class X students have left academicians, students and parents in a confused. Starting from the muddle regarding the conversion of grades for the students outside the state to the confusion in the minds of the college authorities as to who appeared for the school exam and who appeared for the board exam, authorities at the Marathwada Mitra Mandal's Commerce College (MMCC), which has already started accepting application forms from CBSE students, are a troubled lot.
For the students coming to Pune from outside the state, it was a shock when they were told that their marks would only be converted at four particular schools in Mumbai. “I have come here from Rajasthan and have been in the city for the past one week. I had no idea that we were supposed to get the grades converted from Mumbai. I had to rush to Mumbai and get the grades converted,” said Smita Jain, a Jaipur resident.
Similarly, Mohammad Saif, a student of Carmel School, Kuwait, said,”I came to know about the problem by chance on Facebook while I was talking about admissions with my friends. I got my grades converted from the RN Podar School, Santacruz.” Speaking about the trouble they had to face, Saif's mother Amina Sheikh said, “We had just arrived in India from Kuwait and did not even have a place to stay. We had to wait in a long queue at the Podar School before getting the marks converted. Parents have so many queries about the system, which is very troublesome. The board should have thought about all these problems when changing the system.”
According to parents, the marksheets do not mention if a student has appeared for the school or the board exam.
Rekha Palshikar, vice principal, Fergusson College said, “There are many loopholes in the system at the moment. Looking at the chaos this year, CBSE should make some rigid guidelines that students appearing for the school exam should continue with CBSE only. Or else, they should make clear rules so that the parents and students don't have to face any trouble. They also should mention in the marksheets who appeared for the school and who appeared for the board exam. We have asked students, who appeared for the board exam, to bring their hall tickets and those who sat for the school exam to get an affidavit stating they have appeared for the school exam.”
M D Lawrence, principal, MMCC, said, “Agreed that CBSE put up the information on their website but there are so many people who belong to the rural areas and do not know how to access the board's website. The board should make provisions to clear confusions of all the classes of people. Only posting the circulars on websites is not enough.”

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