Confusion over SSLC marks card details

As over eight lakh students write the new pattern of the SSLC exams modelled on the CBSE from Monday, confusion seems to prevail among aided and unaided schools over how their students’ performance would be indicated in the marks cards. Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board (KSEEB) Director Yashoda Bopanna told Deccan Herald the marks cards would have not only the grades (Cumulative Grade Point Average or CGPA) for each subject but also marks and percentage obtained. However, it seems this information has not been disseminated properly among schools, teachers and students, leading to the confusion. The new pattern is modelled after the CBSE, where a student is assessed on the basis of a continuous comprehensive evaluation (CCE). A total of 80 marks will come from an external exam, and 20 from internal assessment involving a number of activities and projects for each subject. Only in the case of the first language (125 marks), 25 marks will be from the internal assessment and 100 from the exam. The CGPA corresponds to a certain range of marks obtained. For example, a student will get "A+” for scoring 562-625 marks, "A” for 500-561 marks, and so on. The extent of the confusion can be gauged from the fact that schools followed their own system of evaluating the performance of Class 10 students in the mid-term examinations. For instance, an aided school at Varthur in Bengaluru mentioned both grades and marks of students in the markscards of the mid-term exam. "There was no clarity over the issue then, and the resource person told us to allot both grades and marks, as changes would take place later,” said the school principal. Tungabhadra High School at Huligi in Koppal district mentioned only grades in the mid-term markscards. "We allotted only the grades in the markscards while noting down the individual marks in school records,” said Rajesh Angadi, a science teacher from the school. RR English School at Rajarajeshwarinagar in Bengaluru chose to mention only the marks in the mid-term markscard. "I did hear something about giving mentioning both marks and grades. However, it was never conveyed to us officially, and we followed what we practised in the past,” said school principal Srikantappa. Deccan Herald