In 2011, most state governments in the country upgraded their system of evaluating performance in the class 10 examinations.
As per the revised system, which is already implemented in states of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra, to name a few, the state boards of education follow the continuous comprehensive evaluation (CCE) policy to rate performance of students.
According to CCE's 'absolute grading system', performance of students will be presented in grades, rather ranks or percentile which was believed to be a prime reason causing performance pressure on students.
The states' new policy is aimed at equalising the scores of students coming from multiple state boards with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) which already follows the grading system.
Interestingly, the new grading system also allows state board students the 'Best of Five' advantage.
According to this rule, only the best five scores of the student will be considered for grading, which means that if a student has performed poorly in one of the six subjects, s/he has the choice of presenting only the best 5 scores thus improving his overall score.
Although these changes are meant to be in favour of students, experts point that there are a few loopholes in the new grading system that demerit the purpose.
For instance, the CBSE class 10 marksheet displays only grades of the student, but the SSC marksheet continues to show marks scored per subject, which can be further converted to percentage and used to rate performance, which is a cause of concern for parents and students.
Similarly, teachers argue that the 'Best of Five' will indirectly encourage students to neglect studying a certain subject they dislike in school.
"You cannot offer choices to students at class 10 level. If they are given the concession to perform badly in one subject, it will indirectly affect the way the student perceives education," says Gurumitran Iyer, a retired school teacher from Mumbai.
Most teachers also believe that the new grading policy lowers the standard of performance of students.
"How can you have a range of marks for one grade and say that you are equalising performance? Do you really think it is unfair to distinguish between a student scoring 91 and 99? Lack of healthy competition will only make our students lazy," feels Madhusudhan Nair from Model College, Mumbai who has been a moderator of board exams for over 10 years.
Do you agree with the new grading system for class 10? Take this poll below and let us know what you think.
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Is it good to have a grading system at class 10 level?
According to the new grading system, class 10 students are graded as follows
Range of marks against Grade/Grade Point
91-100 marks: A1/10.0
81-90: A2/9.0
71-80: B1/8.0
61-70: B2 /7.0
51-60: C1/6.0
41-50: C2/ 5.0
33-40: D/ 4.0
21-32: E1
20 and below: E2
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