Belatedly, the destructive fallout of haphazard, irresponsible evaluation of the academic capabilities of high school-leavers has prompted soul-searching within the small but growing minority of bona fide educationists about India’s outdated examination system which rewards rote learning – Summiya Yasmeen writes about grades inflation destroying k-12 education The last time handpicked Indian secondary students wrote PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment), a transnational exam designed to test the science and maths capabilities of 15-year-olds worldwide, the Indian cohort was ranked #73 among 74 countries. Moreover, the Annual Status of Education Report of the globally reputed Delhi/Mumbai-based Pratham Education Foundation routinely reports that the reading (vernacular languages) and maths capabilities of primary school students in the country’s 1.2 million rural schools are going from bad to worse. However, judging by recent newspaper headlines and televised euphoria of school-leaving students celebrating their exam results, contemporary India hosts the world’s largest number of teenage academic prodigies. In early May, the pan-India Delhi-based Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and the Council of Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) announced best-ever results of their class X and XII school-leaving exams, provoking nationwide celebrations. The national pass percentage in CBSE’s class XII exam — written by 1.3 million students of 20,299 affiliated schools countrywide in March — rose to 83.4 percent and a staggering 94,299 class XII school-leavers averaged 90 percent-plus (cf. 63,387 in 2016) — an all-time high for the Central government-run CBSE. The super exclusive club of 95-plus percentagers nearly doubled with 17,690 students averaging 95 percent-plus (cf. 9,351 in 2016). Similarly, the class X and XII results of 2,200 CISCE affiliated schools nationwide were exceptional. The national pass percentage in this privately managed school board’s class X ICSE exam was 98.54 percent and 96.52 percent in class XII. And for the first time in the history of this vintage (estb.1958) exam board — with which some of India’s top-ranked schools including Doon (Dehradun), Rishi Valley (Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh) and Cathedral & John Connon (Mumbai) are affiliated — two students averaged a perfect 100 percent (400/400) in the class XII ISC exam. Moreover, 16 students recorded a near perfect aggregate of 399 and 36 aggregated 398. However, the extraordinarily large number of students achieving near perfect scores has raised the bogey of grades inflation because of liberal evaluation of exam answer papers and in particular exposed the ubiquitous practice of ‘marks moderation’ and award of ‘grace marks’. The celebration of exceptional board results has ended quickly with the country’s top-ranked undergrad education colleges — the natural destination of school-leavers — having stipulated corresponding high “cut offs”, i.e, the minimum average percentage for admission, of 95 percent-plus. Suddenly, a distinction average score of 75 percent in the school-leaving class XII exam has become value-less and even students who averaged 90 percent are scrambling to be admitted into undergrad colleges and study programmes of choice. The root cause why admission into higher education institutions, particularly undergrad colleges, has become harder even for board exam toppers is…
