CBSE remains undecided on Class 12 results

Over one million students are awaiting results as college admission process has begun

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Wednesday remained undecided on releasing the Class 12 board results despite a prolonged meeting with Minister of Human Resource and Development (MHRD) Prakash Javadekar and other officials.

CBSE Chairman RK Chaturvedi had sought a meeting with the minister following a Delhi High Court order on Tuesday asking the board to continue with the “moderation marks” policy this year and release the Class 12 results on the lines of previous years. The court questioned the CBSE’s decision on scrapping the moderation marks policy, under which extra marks are given to students in exams for difficult questions, and asked if its new policy can be implemented from the next year.

The CBSE is seeking legal opinion on approaching the Supreme Court challenging the high court decision. It, however, remained tight-lipped  about the date of announcement of the results. “We have not received any information from higher-ups regarding the announcement of results,” a CBSE spokesperson said on Wednesday.

Officials, in the MHRD, however, said that the results could be declared in the next two days. 

The CBSE decision has a direct bearing on over one million Class 12 students, enrolled in 18,694 schools across India and 25 countries, who sat for the exams between March 9 and April 29. Last year the results were announced on May 21. The delay in results this year have made students anxious as the admission process in the Delhi University is underway.  

The CBSE had scrapped the moderation policy last month. It had suggested the MHRD in December last year to build consensus among the other state boards to do away with the moderation policy. Under this policy, students are awarded up to 15 per cent extra marks in certain papers in case of difficult questions. Some state boards agreed, but later backed out saying they would implement this from the next academic year. 

“Since other boards have backed out, this puts the CBSE students in disadvantage. The MHRD can’t force other boards to implement it from the current year as education falls in the concurrent list under the Constitution,” said an official. 

“Inflating marks is considered to be one reason behind high cut-off lists for admissions in colleges. Recently a study revealed that more students from a particular state had secured admissions in top Delhi University colleges as compared to the others. This was mainly because the state board generously awarded the marks,” the official added.