A petition filed by a Tamil Nadu student in the Delhi High Court against the excessive admission of Kerala Board students in Delhi University is again exposing the examination system. Students taking admission in popular Honors courses- Political Science, Sociology, History, Geography, Economics, Commerce etc. of reputed colleges of Delhi University- Hindu College, Ramjas College, Hansraj College, Kirori Mal College, Miranda House and Shri Ram College of Commerce etc. The list of the last few years is full of students from Kerala. This year’s case of the Department of Political Science of Hindu College is the most interesting. There, a total of 20 seats were to be admitted under the unreserved category, but 26 students had to be admitted because all had 100 percent marks. All these students have got 100% marks from Kerala Board.
This year, 234 students of Kerala Board have secured 100% marks and 18,510 students have secured highest A grade. There, only one CBSE student has secured 100% marks. This year 700 students of Kerala Board have applied for Delhi University with 100 per cent marks in the Best Four (on the basis of which the cut-off is determined). Also the total applicants of Kerala Board are 4,824 out of which the majority marks 98 percentile or more. In Delhi University, this trend has gradually increased in the last three-four years. As a result of this, this year the cut-off for more than 30 courses in more than 10 colleges has gone up to 100%. Anyway, these students who get 100 percent marks have very little understanding of the subject. That is why these students are able to pass in the Delhi University examinations in any way. The above facts make the evaluation system of school education questionable.
Waiting for the Supreme Court’s decision regarding Devangana, Natasha and Asif
Delhi University is a central university. Students of every state and board of the country have the right to take admission in it. A student cannot be neglected or deprived on the basis of region, religion or board, but it is equally true that no one should get the illegitimate advantage of studying from a board or being a resident of a particular state, because This takes away the rights of other eligible candidates. The victims of the strict evaluation system of the Uttar Pradesh Board are examples of this. In fact, the unaccounted numbers are playing with constitutional obligations and the future of the young generation. This will lead to a similar trend in other boards. They will also be on the easy path of getting maximum number of students from their boards into prestigious institutions of the country like Delhi University by giving maximum marks. Due to this the education system and evaluation system will collapse.
The Kerala Board or its students may be at the center of the recent controversy, but for nearly a decade, the trend of liberal evaluation and excessive marks has been visible in CBSE as well as many other boards. This is extremely worrying. The increasing importance of mark sheets in life has created many challenges. First of all, it has taken away the pleasure of reading and teaching. Instead of learning and understanding, the focus has shifted to scoring marks. This has put immense pressure and stress on the students. If a student is not able to score very good marks in the board examinations, then his parents start worrying about his life being ruined. These numbers not only give them the assurance of success and possibilities, but also increase their social standing.
There is no scope for the development of creativity, critical thinking and analytical ability in this number-centred arrangement. The whole country is in the grip of this rat race. No one wants to hear and understand the saying that ‘even after winning the rat race, you remain a mouse.’ Well, nobody has anything to do with it. The attention and goal of parents, society, educational institutions and the government is to register maximum marks in the child’s mark sheet. Due to this, from parents to teachers, schools and students themselves are in great difficulty. Therefore, all mental disorders like depression and thoughts like suicide are increasing continuously among the students.
The perverse competition to score maximum marks has robotized the students, parents and teachers. Hundreds of students are scoring 100% marks in the board exams. Students who score 100 per cent or more are proud of their own omniscience. They have no desire to learn or do anything new. It needs to be fixed immediately. For this, a level-playing, inclusive and uniform evaluation system will have to be implemented across the country. Continuity and integrity are essential in evaluation.
Recently, the Ministry of Education has approved the proposal of the National Testing Agency (NTA) to conduct centralized examinations for admission to all central universities. This will solve the problem to some extent, but there is a possibility of increasing the trend of coaching etc. Along with this, there is also a need to provide higher education in mother tongue. Concrete provisions have been made in this direction in the National Education Policy-2020.
