Maharashtra Board Exam: Here's what Varsha Gaikwad says about Paper Evaluation

New Delhi: Due to the present situation emerging out of the coronavirus outbreak and in order to arrest its spread, Maharashtra government has announced the cancellation of Class 10 board exams. While announcing the cancellation of SSLC board exams 2021, Minister for Primary and Secondary Education Varsha Gaikwad had said that marks will be awarded to students based on 'internal assessment' or 'objective criterion', but a process for the same is yet to be decided. There is no decision as of now on how marks will be given to students who will be applying for Class 11 admission in various junior colleges.

Varsha Gaikwad

In a televised message, she 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."

""The criterion on the basis of which results will be declared for class 10th and date of result declaration will soon be announced. The School Education Dept is committed to devising a "fair and accurate" assessment criterion," Ms Gaikwad said.

The Maharashtra SSC or Class 10 board exams were scheduled between April 23 and May 21 which now stand cancelled. Meanwhile, the Class 12 board exams remain suspended till May-end and a final decision on it will be taken in June after reviewing COVID situation in the state.

Following the announcement, the Minister has been holding meetings with the officials and school principals to decide on the new Class 10 evaluation procedure.

She had held a meeting with an educational research organisation named 'Ei-India' to to discuss the "fair and objective criteria" to promote SSC (Class 10) students. "Furthering our commitment of developing a fair and objective criteria for assessment of class 10 students, we had a meeting with eiindia that has proven experience in providing assessment solutions. Meeting was constructive," Ms Gaikwad tweeted.

Ms Gaikwad had held another meeting with college principals and vice-principals to discuss admission policy.

She said that various insightful and valuable suggestions were made regarding the evaluation process. "Held another meeting with principals and vice-principals of prominent junior colleges from Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur as part of our consultations to devise a fair assessment and admission policy for Class 10 students," Ms Gaikwad said.

The Maharashtra government had studied the CBSE's move to cancel Class 10 board exams 2021 and mark students on the basis of internal assessment.

CBSE had earlier cancelled the Class 10 exams and postponed the Class 12 board exams with no end to COVID-19 pandemic in sight.

The Union Education Ministry had announced the decision as it said that, "The board exams for Class 10 are hereby cancelled. The results of Class 10 board will be prepared on the basis of an objective criterion to be developed by the board".

"Any candidate who is not satisfied with the marks allocated to him or her on this basis will be given an opportunity to sit in an exam as and when the conditions are conducive to hold the exams," it added.

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