90% is not good enough any longer

10,000 In Elite Club In City, More Than Top Colleges Can Take In

Hemali Chhapia | TNN

Mumbai: If students with scores to be proud of are now reduced to hunting for seats in second-rung colleges, it’s because a whopping 20,000 and more children across the three main boards—SSC, CBSE and ICSE—are flaunting scorecards that translate into 90% or more marks. Of them, over 10,000 are said to be in Mumbai alone, a number that far exceeds what the top colleges can accommodate.

Data collected from the state board reveals that there are 4,083 students from the city who have scored more than 90% this year. The corresponding state-wide figure stands at 13,679. If 1.63% of Mumbai’s Class X students scored over 90%, one in every five students (20%) from the CBSE board crossed that magic figure. Of the 3,345 CBSE students who took the Class X exam this year, 650 have scored 90%-plus. The ICSE board refused to part with such information.

Moreover, the state’s marks normalisation formula—which aims to put students of all boards on par—has inflated the marks of thousands of others who scored between 85% and 89%, thus expanding the population of the elite 90 percentile club.

So, if there are 1,021 CBSE students who scored between 80% and 89%, sources in the state board say there are 4,000 to 4,500 students from Mumbai who have scored between 85% and 89%.

Last year, D G Ruparel College was the only institution to close its admission counters over 90% after the final list. This year, H R College of Commerce and Economics, K C College and Jai Hind College, which closed admissions below 80% last year, have filled up over 85% of their seats with 90 percentile-plus students. That by itself indicates the large pool of top scorers that the city has this year.

Principal of H R College Indu Shahani pointed out, “While drawing up the third list, I noticed that we had over 100 students who had scored between 92.23 percentile and 92.26 percentile.’’ While her second admission list closed at the 90.56 percentile, the third list closed admissions at the 90.27 percentile.

SCORE-CHERS
In Maharashtra 20,000 | 90%-plus scorers across SSC, CBSE, ICSE boards In Mumbai the figure is over 10,000 4,083 students from SSC board got over 90% So did 650 CBSE students | Another 4,000 SSC students crossed the 90% mark after ‘normalisation’ of scores | Almost 800 CBSE students benefitted from ‘normalisation’ *The ICSE board did not give the pertinent figures Distinction losing value like dollar

Mumbai: The problem of plenty in Class X results this year has left the ‘pedestrian’ first-class and distinction-holders high and dry.

Devaluation of the distinction, it seems, has been worse than the dollar depreciation. In fact, in 1975, the bar for distinction was raised from 70% to 75% in the state after it was felt that 70% had become commonplace. That was the first year that the state also shifted its matriculation exam from class XI to class X.

Since then the number of distinction-holders have gone up year on year; this year, SSC board chairperson Vijaysheela Sardesai pointed out that the population of distinction-holders has gone up by 4% this year as compared to 2007. Basanti Roy, secretary of the state board’s Mumbai division, said that if one were to plot the city results over the years, an improvement at all levels is evident.

“The borderline cases have fallen from 30% to 15%. A population of students who used to score 60% today manages to get about 70% to 75%, thanks to the internal assessment, objective pattern of the paper as also an increased awareness of competition in which students prepare for Class X exams from Class IX itself,’’ observed Roy. “If 33 schools had 0% pass percentage in 2006, just 10 schools in the Mumbai region had 0% pass percentage this year. Similarly, if 192 schools had 100% success rate in 2006, the number has gone up to 700 institutions this year.’’

Betterment of scores has been seen across boards. The CBSE board has 2,061 distinction-holders of the total 3,345 students who took Class X this year. The case is the same with the ICSE board. A few years ago, several colleges used to give an addition of 5% to ICSE students because their curriculum was considered difficult and their evaluation pattern tough.