The Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education on Monday, May 17, told the Bombay High Court it is yet to devise a formula on how Class 10 students will be evaluated and marked in the absence of board exam 2021.
Earlier, the Minister for Primary and Secondary Education Varsha Gaikwad, while announcing the cancellation of SSC board exams 2021, had said that the marks will be awarded to students based on ‘internal assessment' or ‘objective criterion'.
The Maharashtra SSC exams were scheduled to be held between April 23 and May 21.
In a televised message, Ms Gaikwad said, "The (Class 10 board) exam is cancelled. However, to bring parity across various higher secondary education boards, including Maharashtra as well as central and international boards, a meeting (of stakeholders) will be called to finalise a roadmap regarding a “fair and accurate” assessment criterion."
A division bench of Justices S J Kathawalla and S P Tavade was hearing public interest litigation (PIL) filed by a professor, Dhananjay Kulkarni, challenging the Maharashtra government's April decision cancelling Class 10 exams. Mr Kulkarni's petition also challenged similar decisions taken by the ICSE and CBSE boards.
Mr Kulkarni's advocate, Uday Warunjikar, argued that each board will have a different marking system which would cause difficulties and hardships to the students while seeking admission to Class 11.
"The Central government will have to intervene and come out with a uniform policy," he said.
Advocate Sandesh Patil, appearing for the Centre, told the High Court that it has some control over the CBSE board but the ICSE and SSC boards are autonomous and, hence, the Centre has no control over them.
Mr Patil further said the Union government has issued a notification on how marks should be given and the SSC and ICSE boards can adopt the same.
Advocate Kiran Gandhi, appearing for the SSC board, told the court the petition was filed prematurely.
The bench then directed the SSC board and other respondents (Centre, ICSE board and CBSE board) to file their affidavits in response to the petition, and posted the matter for further hearing on May 19.
The decision to cancel Maharashtra SSC (Class 10) exams came soon after the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) had announced the cancellation of Class 10 board exams due to a coronavirus outbreak. CBSE has already released its marking scheme for Class 10 students. CBSE will evaluate Class 10 students on the basis of their performances in the pre-board and internal assessment exams held during the academic year 2020-21.
(With PTI inputs)
