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Latest News |
| 07th
July 2010 / Times of India / Mumbai Edition |
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Best of five… a long wait
"We are well prepared for the SC battle. Everything
else is ready. The day we get the order, we will appeal
in the SC. The process won’t take much time. The
SC’s decision on whether or not to stay admissions
will also be quick,” Balasaheb Thorat, Maharashtra’s
school education minister had said. Tall claims are falling
short. As the SC hearing has been postponed to Friday,
July 9. The education fraternity is irked and soon losing
patience
Around 16 lakh students in the state of Maharashtra who
have appeared for SSC examinations in March this year
are going through an inevitable crisis. Says Lakshmi Shetty,
class X student of Kelvani Mandal School, Jogeshwari,
“Now if the Supreme Court upholds the verdict of
the HC then what? Are the results of lakhs of students
going to be changed? If so, then is this decision going
to be fair to us? Instead of cancelling ‘best of
five’ for lakhs of SSC students, the Government
might as well extend it for a few thousand students who
have appeared for ICSE.” A school child can come
up with a solution, while the Government still is fumbling
with huge statistical data, which none of their people
seem to be able to interpret wisely.
Where is the so-called parity?
Bringing parity in the results declared by the State board
versus those by the national boards, is an all-India problem,
why then is Maharashtra still unable to strike a balance?
The reason is simple. “Either they don’t want
a lasting solution or they simply do not know how to find
one,” opines a school principal on the condition
of anonymity. Whatever be the conclusion, “All children
should be treated equally, you cannot have a segment preparing
for ‘best of five’ and another having to slog
it out in all seven subjects. This is unfair. Whoever
from the state education department is coming out with
these ground-breaking ideas to bring parity in results
declared by the different boards should avoid such knee-jerk
reactions. This is just not acceptable. Their haphazard
decisions smack of some kind of vendetta, which is absolutely
unfair, especially when they are experimenting with the
future of the youth,” asserts Meera Isaacs, principal,
The Cathedral and John Connon School, affiliated to the
ICSE Board.
Haste makes waste
“It’s the sheer haste which is causing the
waste. All the state’s efforts are ending up as
mishaps, simply because their timing is not right. All
the GRs related to class X results should be issued before
October and no change thereafter should be made in terms
of examination pattern, evaluation procedure and declaration
of results. What we need is one curriculum and one system
across the country. That will truly create a level playing
field,” says principal Hema Kannan, of People’s
Welfare Society’s High School, Sion. The school
is affiliated to the State board. Suggests Jayant Abhyankar,
former head Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan, “In the present
case, what the state should have ideally done, is to honour
the HC decision and not taken the case up in the Supreme
Court, because here time is vital and the State is experimenting
with careers of lakhs of students. In their haste to come
out with a solution, they are putting all students in
a compromising situation. The ICSE has a strong side.
They (State) may not get an immediate stay order. ‘The
system violates the right to equality guaranteed by Article
14 of Constitution’ was the judgement given by HC
and it is not an easy one to challenge.” When there
are forty odd boards across the country and if any organisation
tries to strike a balance in their results, evaluation
pattern and examination system, it is invariably going
to create chaos, feels Abhyankar.
Where are the experts?
According to the veteran educationist, the percentile
system devised two years back failed because the formula
devised by the state was faulty. “The Indian Institute
of Statistics, Kolkata is an ace organisation with experienced
statisticians and scholars, the state education department
could have assigned them the task of devising a comprehensive
formula. Getting a small-time expert or two and devising
a hurried formula for such an important decision is surely
going to be defeated in the HC.”
Presently, time is crucial and the state cannot afford
to play with students’ future any longer. In doing
so, they are angering students of all boards and in the
long run playing with the sentiments of a large vote bank. |
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