The Maharashtra state government rolled back its decision to scrap the in-school assessment for languages and social science subjects for classes IX and X in all state board schools. Evaluation of language and social science subjects for the school leaving class X board exams will once again comprise of 80 marks written assessment papers and another 20 marks of oral communication capability and project assignments evaluated internally by the schools.
In 2017 suspecting state board affiliated schools of inflating internal assessment grades, the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE) announced its decision to scrap internal assessments in languages and social sciences from academic year 2018-19. The move impacted 1.7 million students writing their secondary school certificate (SSC) exams that were held in March with the over-all pass percentage dropping by 12.31 percent from 89.41 in 2017-18 to 77.04 percent in 2018-19.
The change in the evaluation pattern had put SSC students at a disadvantage vis-a-vis their Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) counterparts who scored better due to the boards’ existing 80:20 assessment pattern. This resulted in widespread protests from parents claiming students from other boards would have better chances when seeking FYJC admissions into the state’s top-ranked arts, science and commerce colleges.
Following the protests the state’s education department introduced several stop-gap arrangements like increasing the number of seats in some of the top-ranked colleges in Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur and asking other school boards to re-calculate the grades awarded to their students, all of which resulted in inadvertent delays for the first year junior college (FYJC) (2019-2020) admissions. The education department also instituted an expert committee to lookinto the evaluation and subject scheme for the state board from class IX to class XII. The committee had submitted its report last week.