THERE is no question of reversing earlier decision to cancel class 12 board exams, the Supreme Court said on Thursday and approved the assessment schemes of the CISCE and the CBSE, which has adopted 30:30:40 formula for evaluation of marks for students based on results of class 10, 11 and 12 respectively. The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE) said however that it would consider the performance of students for last six classes, unlike CBSE which is taking note of performance in class 10, 11 and 12 exams, in finalising the final board results. The CISCE has also informed the top court that it will declare the Class XII results by July 20, after evaluating the students based on its well defined objective criteria. Both the boards said they would declare the class 12 results on or before July 31. A special bench of justices A M Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheshwari perused the assessment schemes of both the boards and said, “Prima facie, we have no hesitation in accepting the same and permit the Boards to proceed on that basis.

 

“However, the scheme must incorporate two aspects...the first is about providing for Dispute Resolution mechanism, in case students apply for correction of the final result declared by the concerned Boards.” The second issue referred to by the bench was about the time-line to be specified for declaration of the result and the date before which the optional examination will be conducted subject to “conducive situation and logistical constraints”. Attorney General K K Venugopal, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and senior advocate J K Das, who were representing the Centre, the CBSE and the CISCE respectively, agreed to the suggestions of the bench on incorporating disputes redressal mechanism, dates of results and tentative date-sheet for optional class 12 exams in the schemes.

 

The Central Board of Secondary Examination (CBSE), in its assessment scheme, referred to components to be evaluated and the weightage in percentage to arrive at final results. The CBSE said it will evaluate class 12 students for theory based on 30 per cent marks from class 10 board, 30 per cent from class 11 and 40 per cent from marks based on the performance in unit, mid-term and pre-board tests. It said the marks obtained by class 12 students in practical and internal assessment on actual basis as uploaded by schools on CBSE Portal will be also considered in deciding final results. The CBSE announced that the Class 10 and 12 results will be declared by July 20 and July 31 respectively. The CBSE scheme further elaborated that for Class X-30 per cent marks based on average theory component of best three performing subjects out of main five subjects will be taken. For Class XI-30 per cent marks based on theory component of final exam will be taken and for Class XII-40 per cent marks based on unit test/mid-term/pre-board exams will be taken.

 

“The marks of practical/internal assessment of Class XII will be on actual basis as uploaded by the school on the CBSE portal,” the CBSE said, adding that the total marks awarded should be in consonance with the past performance of the school in class-XII board examinations. The board further said that in case, any student is not able to meet the qualifying criterion; he/she will be placed in “essential repeat” or “compartment category”. “Students who are not satisfied with assessment, done based on the policy will be given an opportunity to appear in examinations to be conducted by the board when conditions are conducive for holding the examinations. As per this policy, marks scored in later examination will be considered as final,” the CBSE said. The bench rejected the plea of senior advocate Vikas Singh, for some students, that there should be a relook of the decisions of CBSE and CISCE to cancel class 12 board exams in view of the fact that tests like Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) would be conducted in physical manner.

 

“We are of the view that this plea (review of cancellation) cannot be taken forward. For, we have already accepted the decision taken by the concerned Boards to cancel XIIth standard examination and had placed it on record on the previous date. “In any case, the students, who want to appear in the examination for improvisation of their marks, will get that opportunity under the scheme. That takes care of the concern of such students..,” the order said. The top court referred to schemes of assessment of both the boards and said there was no “question of reversing the earlier decision regarding cancellation of examination” because no prejudice will be caused to students as they can still appear in the optional examination to be concluded in due course.