Kapil Sibal, India’s HRD Minister, has announced plans for abolition of Board Examinations for Std X and Std XII. He wants grades to be given in place of marks. He wants one Board for India. There are many other plans. I want to comment on exams and marks.
The reason given for abolition of Board Examinations is they cause stress for students. Examinations by themselves are not cause for stress. In big cities good colleges are few and High Schools are many. To get admission in good colleges there is tough competition. Sometimes 90% marks are not enough. There are some colleges for which there is not much competition. The solution is to increase the number of good colleges. There has to be some criteria for admission to colleges. If Board Examinations are done away with there will be tests for admissions to colleges. There will be stress to pass those tests. The stress is more for students who want admission to engineering or medical colleges.
Marks give the exact percentage. Grades give general percentage. A grade may mean 90% – 100% marks. If there are 50 seats and 100 students with A grade apply how will be admissions decided? In one college a student with 98% may get admission and a student with 97% may not get admission. If there is one seat and both have got A grade and applied on what basis admission will be made?
What system USA and UK follow is not our business. Their system need not be better than what we follow. These countries are bankrupt.
A student who wants to develop her personality while in high school can do so. S/he can spend time in extra-curricular activities but should not expect to be treated as equal to students who study more and get more marks.
When there are more applicants than seats there will be those who do not get admissions. Those who get admissions will be happy. Some of those who do not get admissions will demand change in system. In Delhi admission to Nursery used to be by tests. It was said that the tests caused stress to children. Tests were abolished. Point system was introduced. A child of the locality will get five points. A girl of the locality will get five points. A child with sibling in the school will get five points. There were some other criteria on which points were given. As usual applicants were more than seats. The parents of those who did not get seats wanted to revert to tests.