Although college administrations are obliged to admit students on the basis of grades awarded by state, pan-India and offshore exam boards on the presumption of parity inter se, some boards are more equal than others the ideas of March are stressful times for an estimated 14 million class X and 9 million class XII students across the country, who will write their school-leaving exams this month. The annual board exams are vitally important for students as the average percentage or grades awarded to them will determine the colleges into which they will be admitted later this year (July/August). Given the reality that only a few dozen of India’s 35,000 colleges offer acceptable quality undergraduate education, high grades” especially for students writing the class XII boards ” are of critical importance. The country’s top-ranked undergrad colleges” St. Stephen’s, Delhi, Shri Ram College of Commerce, St. Xavier’s (Mumbai and Kolkata) among others” routinely prescribe 95 percent-plus admission cut-offs, which means students who average less (unless they are from reserved categories) are denied admission into colleges of their choice. For parents too, the last mile before board exams is a season of anxiety because high grades can ease a child’s passage into top-notch Central government or state government-aided private colleges where tuition fees have been static since 1950. Although all government-aided private undergrad colleges levy other (maintenance, library, campus development etc) fees, they rarely aggregate Rs.40,000 per year. On the other hand, low grades in the school boards force students to settle for undergrad education in one of the 5,000 run-of-the-mill state government arts, science and commerce colleges where the quality of infrastructure, curriculums and learning outcomes is rock bottom. The other alternative is to apply for admission into private professional colleges, the best of which levy tuition and other fees aggregating Rs.2-5 lakh per annum. In private colleges of professional education” especially institutions run by amoral politicians and real estate moguls ” forced donations ranging between Rs.10 lakh-3 crore (medical colleges) are often demanded and paid. In short, there’s a lot riding on high percentages/grades in school-leaving board exams. Typically, under post-independence socialist Central planning which has plunged Indian education into a maze of confusion, there are 34 school boards countrywide authorised to prescribe syllabuses/curriculums, conduct class X and XII examinations and certify students. Inevitably the quality of education prescribed, conduct and supervision of examinations and the value of certificates issued by each board differs. For instance, the market value of school-leaving certificates issued by the state education boards of Uttar Pradesh or Bihar” states notorious for administrative corruption and rackets in education ” is much less than of certification issued by the exam boards of better-governed states such as Goa, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, and Karnataka which rank high in the annual education development index of the Delhi-based National University of Educational Planning & Administration (NUEPA). Moreover, confusion about the relative value of school leaving certificates issued by state examination boards is confounded by the higher market value accorded to certificates…
