Date:27/05/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/27/stories/2008052753980400.htm

New Delhi

School principals to meet CBSE Chairman over low English marks

Parul Sharma

NEW DELHI: The principals of some of the top schools of the Capital will meet Central Board of Secondary Education Chairman Ashok Ganguly on Tuesday to discuss “the sudden and sharp decline” in English marks of Class XII students in the Board examinations this year.

Schools like Springdales (Pusa Road), Springdales (Dhaula Kuan), Modern (Vasant Vihar), Laxman Public School (Hauz Khas), Sardar Patel Vidyalaya and CRPF Public School (Rohini) are upset over the “poor” English results of their students.

“Most of our students have got marks in the 90s in four subjects, while they have suffered badly in English. It has ruined their result. We want to know how the paper has been corrected and who has corrected them. English will affect every other stream once our students begin applying in colleges,” said Ameeta Mullah Wattal, Principal of Springdales School, Pusa Road, on Monday.

In fact, Ms. Wattal met Mr. Ganguly on Friday itself, the day the results were declared after an outcry by the Parents-Teacher Forum of her school on seeing the English marks of the students.

“On behalf of the Forum, I submitted a letter to the CBSE chairperson. He assured me that he would definitely look into these English papers to see what went wrong,” she added.

Such is the angst of some parents that some of them are even mulling over moving the court, according to Jyoti Bose, Principal of Springdales School, Dhaula Kuan.

Erratic marking

“Why is it that certain schools have done so badly? The marking seems erratic without any standardisation. We want to know which nodal centre our papers went to. We are also seeking re-evaluation of answer sheets,” she added.

According to the Principal of CRPF Public School, Suraj Prakash, the English results came as a rude shock especially because students had performed well in the pre-Board examinations.

A parent whose daughter did her Class XII from Delhi Public School, R. K. Puram, said the girl did exceptionally well in English in the school internal exams but got only 68 in the CBSE examination.

The English results this year have become a hot topic of debate in view of Delhi University’s decision to scrap the separate entrance examinations for different colleges for admitting students to English (Honours).

“Had there been an entrance exam, things would have been fine. But this year the colleges will be looking at the best four subjects and English marks of students in Class XII. Obviously those who are good in the subject but have not scored well in CBSE are feeling disheartened,” said Jugnu Singh, an English teacher with Springdales School, Pusa Road.