Maharashtra Board Planning For Score Normalization

At Mumbai, with the centre expected to take a decision on giving 40% weight-age to class 12 scores for admission to IIT's and other Centrally funded Engineering Institutes, the Council of Boards for School Education (CoBSE) discussed the possibilities of having a normalization process in assessing students from all state boards on Thursday.

As different boards in the country vary in their evaluation process, their representatives met in Delhi to discuss possible ways to normalize their scores vis-a-vis the 40% weight-age. “As all the boards have their own criteria for assessment, there should be some way to get uniform scores. If the Centre decides to give 40% weightage to Std XII scores across the country, there should be a method to normalize the scores from all boards, including the central board. There have been different suggestions, such as counting only the physics-chemistry-mathematics (PCM) marks for admission, but nothing has been finalized” said an official.

Before the system of entrance exams started in the country, admission to all engineering colleges was given on the basis of PCB (Biology) scores; relying on the PCM-PCB scores could be one of the solutions. Another suggestion involved having a varied list of combinations from which the state boards could pick a process that suited their requirements. The Centre has called a meeting of the education ministers of all states to future discuss the issue and seek their approvals.

Thursday's meeting also discussed how the importance of school education was waning among students. An official said there was a lot of emphasis on entrance exams, but students were not worried about attending classes. Most of the competitive tests had multiple-choice questions and there was little stress on board exams, which were more subjective and in-depth, added the official.

CBSE chairperson Vineet Joshi and Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary education chairperson Sarjerao Jadhav were among those who attended the meeting. The Centre is expected to decide on giving 40% weight-age to Std 12 scores for admission to engineering institutes.