Bengaluru: With Class 10 and 12 exams conducted by Central Board of Secondary Examinations (CBSE) scheduled to begin on March 5, the Board has issued an advisory that no school can withhold the issue of the exam admit card from the student. The direction has been issued in the light of some schools denying the same to students due to poor performance in the pre-board exams conducted internally by the school. Citing Rule 15 of the CBSE examination bye-laws, the Board warned, “In no case the heads of affiliated schools shall detain eligible candidates from appearing at the examination.”
Controller of Examinations K.K. Choudhury mentioned in the advisory that admit cards are issued only to candidates whose names are listed and sent by the schools as their finalised list of candidates appearing for the board exams. “Therefore, the school has already confirmed eligibility of such candidates appearing for the board exams. This being the position, it is reiterated that holding of admit card/not allowing eligible candidate to appear in practical/theory exams is a violation of CBSE bye-examination laws,” he said. Corroborating his views, M. Srinivasan, president of the Managements of Independent CBSE Schools Association (MICSA) said that schools have been withdrawing a student’s promotion to class 10 only in the case of unsatisfactory academic performance. Reacting to the advisory directing schools not to charge any fee for the issue of admit cards, he said that such a trend has not been happening at any school in the state. “Schools might have collected the exam fee which is paid to the board while registering candidates for the board exams,” he clarified.
Passing criteria for Class 10
According to the latest decision taken by the Board, the passing criteria mentioned for students appearing for Class 10 exams this year has been eased. Students need to secure overall 33% marks (both internal scores and board exam scores taken together) in each subject to get pass marks, the notification mentioned.
However, this will be taken only as a one-time measure according to Anita Karwal, Chairperson, CBSE. “The decision was taken by the examination committee after considering the circumstances and facts that the current batch of Class 10 is coming from a different assessment background from while they were in Class 9 (2017),” she clarified.
