NEW DELHI: The Union ministry of human resource development (HRD) will curb the “malpractice of spiking of marks” and implement a more scientific moderation policy from 2018. The Delhi high court had restrained the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) -primarily because of the timing of the board’s decision -from doing away with its moderation policy this year.
The HRD ministry has set up an inter-board working group (IBWG), comprising eight boards, to work out the details for stopping of moderation and upward revision, or spiking, of marks.
IBWG will deliberate regularly and work out a model for all boards to follow.
All boards will also move towards adopting a common core curriculum, the grace marks policy is to be uploaded on websites, and marks and grades for extracurricular subjects are to be given separately. The plan is also to share question papers (with CBSE) to bring about uniformity in assessment.
“It (the plan to scrap moderation) could not happen as planned this year. However, we are working things out for all boards from next year. In fact, all the boards have agreed to stop spiking marks from next year,” a senior HRD ministry official said.
The official added that some boards had raised certain issues at the April 24, 2017 meeting about implementing the same this year, but they are in agreement about 2018.
In April, 32 school education boards agreed not to moderate marks (for upward revision) this year, but the Delhi high court, acting on a petition, restrained CBSE from implementing it. Meanwhile, some boards continued with the practice of “inflating the marks”.
However, the HRD ministry was encouraged by the fact that some boards, like those of Punjab and Karnataka, adhered to the consensus and made an effort.
[Source”timesofindia”]
