Students of Class 10 should be provided with marksheets. Respective boards should be involved in the marking process to avoid bias, highlighted heads of 14 junior colleges of Mumbai, three junior colleges of Pune and one of Nagpur in a virtual meeting with the state school education minister Varsha Gaikwad held on Monday. Various alternative methods, innovative marking criteria and fair techniques to provide results were suggested in the meeting as Class 10 examinations have been cancelled by all boards due to the Covid-19 situation in Maharashtra.
On Monday, the state school education department conducted a second meeting to devise a fair criterion to provide results for Class 10 students with concerned authorities. Gaikwad said, "We held another meeting with principals and vice-principals of prominent junior colleges from Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur districts as part of our consultations to devise a fair assessment and admission policy for standard 10 students. Various insightful and valuable suggestions were made."
Marie Fernandes, principal of St Andrew's College, Bandra who attended the meeting said, "Many suggestions were made by various college heads. Some of the suggestions included providing results on the basis of internal assessment marks, preliminary exam scores and also performance of students in the last three years."
Junior college heads stressed on the importance of the role and involvement of respective boards in the process of providing marks and procuring results for Class 10 students. The principal of a South Mumbai college said, "Schools should not be given total authority to award marks and provide results to Class 10 students. The respective boards whether state or private should devise a fair criterion to mark students and play a key role in providing results. This will help avoid bias and formulate a fair marking system."
Francis Joseph, co-founder of School Leaders Network (SLN), who attended the meeting said, "Among various suggestions, junior colleges strongly stated the need to provide marksheets to Class 10 students and the involvement of boards in the marking process."
As Class 10 examinations across boards are cancelled due to the Covid-19 situation in Maharashtra, a final decision from the state school education department regarding the marking system is awaited. This decision will determine the admission process for Class 11 including the centralised First Year Junior College (FYJC) admission online process managed by the Maharashtra state school education department.
