Mumbai: To help students who struggle with math, educational authorities have created a new policy. Under this policy, students who score between 20 and 34 marks in Mathematics and Science on their 10th board exams (SSC Exam) can now enroll in 11th grade.
The move is aimed at benefitting those students who want to pursue non-maths related courses after class X. Arts stream students will benefit from it, said experts.
With this policy, students have two options:
They can either join 11th grade with a note on their results showing their lower scores or choose to retake the exams. This flexibility aims to reduce stress and make it easier for students to continue their education.
However, not everyone agrees with this decision. Speaking to the Free Press Journal, education expert Dhanvanti Hardikar said, “Lowering of marks is not a good idea. If the state government wanted to help students who are weak in maths and/or science, they should have given them an option of studying some other subject in Class X itself. What is the need to make a subject compulsory, and then lower the criteria for passing the board exam? This will have a demoralising effect on the students who will have a negative feedback in their mark sheets in case they score lower than 35."
Contradicting Dhanvanti's view, some educators, like Mahendra Ganpule, a former school principal, believe the new policy is a step in the right direction.
"This is a good decision," Ganpule stated, "It will ease the pressure on students and encourage them to pursue higher education even if they are weak in maths and science."
