DNA Micro edit: Is the balanced marking scheme a boon for pupils?

A few years after its students started scoring sky rocketing scores, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), seems to have made its marking policy for class XII exams more stringent this year. While several students featured in the 90s brigade like every year, experts have observed that the overall number of top scorers have gone down this year.

Over the last few years, there were a lot of contestations about the CBSE's marking policy. Due to its marking pattern, students' scores would most often be on the higher side. Students from the state board have been finding it difficult to compete with their counterparts from the central board taking up all the top spots in the most coveted colleges across the country.

With the ICSE board becoming a prominent player in the country in the last five to six years, competition for state board students became even tougher as those from the ICSE board were given the option of picking the subjects of their choice, and would often score better than them due to the board's marking scheme.

In 2008, the Maharashtra government also introduced a percentile system to equalise the scores of students across boards to ensure that the state students do not suffer. It is from these criticisms and the whole controversy over marks moderation that the CBSE seems to have learnt its lesson. While overall dip in the number of high scorers might be seen as a bad sign, experts actually feel that a balanced marking scheme would benefit all students at large.