STATE BOARD MAY BE LESS STINGY WITH MARKS
New Rules Make It Difficult For Schools To Hold Back Students In Class IX
Anahita Mukherji | TNN
School education in Mumbai is all set to witness dramatic changes in the new year, both in terms of the quality of institutions on offer as well as the assessment scheme in board examinations.
NEW RULES IN LANGUAGE
PAPER
Passing the language paper in the SSC and HSC exams may get a little more difficult next year. It’s no longer just about mugging up grammar and syntax. In 2008, for the first time, the state board will test children on their ability to speak the language. Twenty per cent of the marks for the language examination will be reserved for internal assessment that will include an oral examination. There will also be an internal assessment for mathematics worth 20 per cent of the marks.
MORE LIBERAL MARKING IN THE OFFING
The sky-high marks scored by ICSE and CBSE students have been giving SSC students sleepless nights for the last few years but there is a chance that the state board will attempt to level the playing field and give out marks more liberally in 2008. 2007 saw a dramatic increase in the SSC pass percentage; students got 30 “free’’ marks, thanks to a goof-up in the mathematics paper. But, despite that, ICSE, CBSE and International Baccalaureate (IB) students had an upper hand when it came to college merit lists.
NO HOLDING BACK STUDENTS IN CLASS IX
Schools are known to fail a high number of class-IX students in order to get cent per cent results in the class-X exams. But fresh guidelines from the state board will make it virtually impossible for schools to hold back students a year before the big exam. A student now needs to get only an average of 35 per cent in all three languages instead of getting 35 per cent in each subject. Similarly, instead of having to pass in both mathematics and science papers individually with 35 per cent in each, students now need to only get 35 per cent of the total marks for science and maths.
BIRDS AND BEES IN SYLLABUS
Studies may no longer be all about history and mathematics. Birds and bees may make their way into the curriculum. However, after the uproar over the teachers’ manual for sex education which forced the government to backtrack and pull the subject out of the curriculum, the state may act with a little more caution this time. The State Council of Education, Research and Training is working on a new curriculum that “will not hurt Indian sensibilities’’.
EASIER FOR LD STUDENTS
English-medium students have access to Learning Disability tests to detect the condition but the disorder often goes unnoticed in students from Indian-language schools. All that, however, is set to change next year, thanks to a series of newly-released standardised LD tests in Hindi, Marathi and Gujarati.
MORE IGCSE SCHOOLS
The other bit of good news is that the city will witness a host of new IB schools entering the market; along with that, a number of existing ICSE and SSC schools also plan to switch over to the Cambridge curriculum (IGCSE).
CONVENT REVAMP
It’s not just international schools that plan to effect a slew of changes. Convent schools, too, are all set to get a facelift.
Recognising the need to keep up with the times, the Archdiocesan Board of Education (ABE) that runs the 150-odd convents in and around Mumbai is going all out to revamp its schools in 2008. Don’t be surprised if you drop in at your neighbourhood convent and find some exciting, innovative methods of education replacing the traditional chalkand-blackboard method. ABE will also set up a system of assessment for the headmasters of its schools.
Those schools that are doing well will be asked to mentor other convents that need a leg up.
CHANGES IN BMC SCHOOLS
It’s not just private education that’s set to witness a number of changes next year. While free-of-cost civic schools — that cater largely to the poor — have seen a tremendous decline in student strength, there may be a reverse trend in 2008. The BMC is going all out to woo children, providing students with freebies like schools bags and milk to starting English-medium schools.
BATTERED KIDS
But the big worry is that, despite the blanket ban on corporal punishment, there is little hope of a decrease in the number of incidents of kids being battered in the classroom.
School authorities rarely take such instances seriously and are known to brush them aside. In the last one year, there has been a spate of such incidents (including one in which a child partially lost his hearing after being hit on the ear and a four-year-old saying he never wanted to go to school after being hit on the head with a duster).
WISH FOR 2008
TAKE IT EASY
Mumbai witnessed a spate of teenage suicides this year. Despite a slew of changes in the school education system, there’s little hope of any letting up in study-related pressure. Mental health experts warn of an increase in depression and suicidal tendencies. Hiring full-time counsellors is an option schools must consider seriously. If there’s one wish that we at TOI have for 2008, it is that parents and teachers go easy on their expectations and concentrate more on the child than his/her marks so that no more lives are lost.
THE 2007
REPORT CARD
WE STILL KNEW THE TOPPERS
The state board had announced, with great fanfare, that it wanted to do away with merit lists like the ICSE/CBSE boards. But it ended up releasing the names of the students with the highest scores in each category this year.
MARKED IMBALANCE
ICSE and CBSE students continued to get phenomenally high marks in the board exams, giving SSC students the jitters, as these marks were important in deciding who got into which junior college.
SSC GOOF-UP
SSC students got 30 “free’’ marks in mathematics thanks to a goof-up in the paper.
NO SEX EDUCATION PLEASE
The teacher’s manual for sex education in schools caused a huge furore early in 2007. The State Council of Education, Training and Research now plans to introduce sex education in the classroom after modifying the manual.
SPIRIT OF GIVING
BMC decided in May to allot over Rs 200 crore to provide free uniforms, shoes, school bags and other accessories — in addition to flavoured milk and sports gear — for its 4 lakh students.
DEATH BY WATER
A seven-year-old student drowned in the swimming pool of Janakidevi Public School (Four Bungalows) in July 2007.
WAKE-UP CALL
The Archbishop of Mumbai was forced to lament the dip in standards at convent schools.
HELP FOR STUDENTS WITH LD
Two SNDT teachers designed standardised tests in Hindi, Marathi and Gujarati to detect Learning Disability. The tests took the teachers two years to develop and standardise and the final product was ready in September.
FROM BMC TO IB
An RTI application by Simprit Singh of the National Alliance of People’s Movements in October revealed details of how the Walpakhadi Municipal School — a BMC school at Mazgaon that closed down four years ago — was converted into an International Baccalaureate School, violating the law.
A SAFER JOURNEY
Traffic cops said in October they wanted all kids to go to school on school-buses for a safer journey.
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