Best Of Five Case. 251p49

A REPORT ON

͚BEST OF FIVE CASE͛ FROM:Gaurav Kalya MBATech CS 312 cPage

In Indian society education plays a very important role. A person is judged by the education he/she has. As India is know for the diversity in its culture a lot of diversity can be found in the INDIAN EDUCATION SYSTEM. Indian Education System consists of a different education system, marking system, course pattern etc. In India many number of boards co exist in the system. Each board has its own criteria to judge students capabilities. Some board judge student on behalf of knowledge whereas the other board judge student by applying new system for marking etc. The different board which are there in India are CBSE , ICSE, RAJ board , SSC board and many more state boards. As mentioned above the system uses different scheme for judgement of student there are lots of different Grading Scheme going on in education system. The different marking Schemes are: 1. Grading System 2. Best of 5 System 3. Percentage System 4. Percentile System Grading system consists of the marking scheme in which students are given grade depending upon the marks they have obtained in the examinations. Similarly the other system also evaluate the student performance in exams but they provide percentage of the marks obtain in the exams or they do cumulative grading system . The basic difference comes in the new system like ͚Best Of Five͛ in this system a student is allowed give exams of 5-6 subjects depending upon the board but the ultimate fate of student is decided on the basis of the marks scored in the five subjects only. Use of so many marking scheme put student in dilemma . The student is unable to understand the advantage or disadvantage of the above system till the results are declared . After the declaration of results when a student compares his/her result with the student of the same standard but of the other board than the real game begins. A student can suffer or enjoy with joy with the system because when after results begins the fight for ission in good junior colleges. A student with nice grades get ission in good junior colleges while the others opt for the remaining option all over the coun try.

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The policy, announced in February, stated that for ission to junior college SSC students͛ best five scores out of the total of six subjects would be counted in calculating the average percentage. The ͚Best Five͛ system, recently introduced by the Maharashtra government, provides for a student͛s top five scores being taken into for his overall percentage. The ͚best of five͛ system is already in place in the CBSE and ICSE examinations and the idea to introduce this in the st ate was to reduce the pressure of exams from students at the same time bring parity between the state and other systems. Under the new ͚best of five͛ concept, students will have a choice to drop any subject which they fear or about whom they are not confident of scoring in the examination. While, the languages ʹ Marathi and English will be compulsory, students can choose three subjects out of four, namely Mathematics, Social Sciences, Science and Hindi. The 'best of five' system was proposed for Secondary School Certificate (SSC) Board students. As per the rule marks obtained in five out of the six subjects would be considered for Class XI issions. One subject in which the student has done worst would be left out from consideration.

This rule was mooted by the state education board as it found the evaluation of papers by ICSE and CBSE boards was more liberal putting the SSC students at a disadvantage. The only difference between the best of five subjects pattern in CBSE exams and the state will be that, here in the state, students will have to compulsory appear for two languages, while in CBSE and ICSE only English is compulsory. Students usually fear Mathematics or Science and the state board authorities said majority students fare badly in these two subjects. ͞If a student were to drop Mathematics or Science, he would not qualify for ission in the science stream, but he can certainly seek ission in the Arts and Commerce stream,͟ a state education department official said. State Education Minister, Balasaheb Thorat said, ͞The spate of suicides in the state has exposed the fear students harbour about the board examinations and the subjects. We want to make the examinations as student-friendly as possible. We intend to take a decision on the ͚best of five͛ scheme shortly. However, before we introduce the new system for the coming examination, we intend to hold meetings of parents all over the state to bring in consensus on the issue.͟ State education Board chief,

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Vijaysheela Sardesai, confirmed that the state education department has asked the board to work out the ͚best of five͛ subjects scheme for the coming March SSC examination.

Maharashtra Government approved the 'best of five' formula on 26 feb 2010 for junior college issions from the next academic year, in order to bring parity with other educational boards. › › › ‘

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!† " # The students appearing for Secondary School Certificate exam (10th class) scheduled in March would be eligible for the option, the official said.

$ % The Parents of students who appeared in ICSE board for 10 th std put the argument that the maha govt is providing undue advantage to the student of SSC board. As in ICSE board a student is allowed to appear for 7 subject for his / her 10 th std. The marksheet which come at the end of the results consists of marks obtained in all the 7 subjects. As a result the student of ICSE board may score less percentage in total. The students of SSC got advantage over ICSE students as they got end result from the marks obtained in five subject from the best scored from 6 subjects.

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Senior advocate Rafiq Dada, counsel for the petitioners, alleged that the newly introduced method was "the percentile system with a vengeance" - referring to the formula awarding grace marks to SSC students that had been stuck down by the HC in 2008. The lawyer claimed that the state and the SSC board had devised the system to give its students an advantage over other boards. "With the aid of Best-Five, the percentage scored by SSC students have increased by four to five percentage," claimed Dada.

The ICSE board too backed its students. "The new rule gives benefits to less meritorious SSC students," argued advocate Raju Subramanian, counsel for the ICSE board. He pointed out that while in the whole of Maharashtra there were merely 8,289 ICSE students who ed the Standard X examinations, the Best-Five system had helped around 13,500 SSC students (out of 16 lakh students) to score over 90 % marks. "The issions to first year junior college for ICSE students would be jeopardised," claimed Subramanian. 8th June

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( Day-long arguments concluded before a division bench of acting chief Justice J N Patel and Justice S C Dharmadhikari, as both sidesͶICSE and SSCͶtraded charges that the students from the other board enjoyed an ͞unfair advantage͛͛ over its own. Some ionate arguments from the senior advocates in the courtroom packed with parents, students and lawyers following every word. Heads nodded vigorously in agreement when the counsel made an argument in their favour, while others grimaced, disagreeing with the point. The state board had introduced the best-five system so that SSC marksheets would show the percentage of the marks scored in the top five subjects. Parents of ICSE students moved the HC claiming discrimination in the ission process.The HC had stayed FYJC issions till the controversy was resolved. The judges asked the ICSE board whether it was willing to offer its students the option of choosing the top five subject scores. Senior advocate Rafiq Dada, counsel for the petitioners, alleged that the newly introduced method was ͞the percentile system with a vengeance͛͛Ͷreferring to the formula awarding grace marks to SSC students that had been stuck down by the HC in 2008. He claimed that the state and the SSC board had devised the system to give its students an advantage over other boards. ͞With the aid of Best-Five, the percentage scored by SSC students have increased by four to five percentage,͛͛ claimed Dada. The ICSE board, too, backed its students. ͞The new rule gives benefits to less meritorious SSC students,͛͛ argued advocate Raju Subramanian, counsel for the ICSE board. He pointed out that while in the whole of Maharashtra there were merely 8,289 ICSE students who ed the Standard X examinations, the best-five system had helped around 13,500 SSC students (out of 16 lakh students) to score over 90% marks. ͞The issions to first year junior college for ICSE students would be jeopardised,͛͛ claimed Subramanian. Refuting the allegations, Maharashtra advocate general Ravi Kadam told the court that the state had not touched the rules governing FYJC issions. ͞Only the regulations concerning the format of SSC mark sheets have been changed to reflect the scores of the top five subjects,͛͛ said Kadam, adding that students would have to however all the six subjects. The advocate general said that even the other boards have their own rulesͶCBSE takes into only five of its six subjects, while ICSE declares its students as ed even if they fail in two of the seven subjects. FYJC issions norms say that a student has to five subjects, including English, in the Standard X examinations ]Page

to be eligible for ission. Kadam said that the state had approved the best-five system as it wanted to reduce the burden on SSC students. ͞A student may be weak in one subject, but we didn͛t want him to suffer if he has performed well in the other five subjects,͛͛ he said. The advocate general also accused the ICSE board of failing to be proactive ‘ ‘‘‘

‘‘"‘ ‘ !‘7‘"‘!‘ ‘,‘‘‘ ‘ ‘!+ ‘‘/› ‘ ‘‘ ‘!‘ ‘,,‘‘8‘› ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘‘!‘ ‘!‘&'‘!‘‘ ‘!‘‘!+ ‘‘ ‘‘"‘‘› ‘ ‘‘‘ ‘ ‘‘"‘ "‘ ‘‘ ‘‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘"‘‘" ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘9‘‘‘ ‘ ‘ ‘‘" ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘‘ ‘!+ ‘‘"‘!‘ ‘‘ It may be noted that in the last couple of years, the state had twice attempted to change the norms for FYJC issions, once with the percentile formula in 2008 and the 90:10 system in 2009. Both met with failure when the high court struck them down, saying that it put students from other boards at a disadvantage during the ission process. This time, the state has left the ission process untouched (see box) but only changed the marksheet format. Interestingly, however, when it initially issued the GR announcing the Best Five rule, the government did it under Regulation 79 of the Maharashtra Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Boards Act, that lays down eligibility criteria to FYJC. Subsequently, it issued a corrigendum that an error had crept in and the Best Five rule was actually made under Regulation 56, 58 and 59 which concern the issue of mark sheets and certificates. Replying to the allegations that there were no consultations with the other boards, the state said it was not required to do so. ͞For amending its own rules for its own students of Standard X, petitioners cannot insist on consultation and deliberation by the state board with other boards,͛͛ the affidavit said. The petition filed by parents of ICSE students had claimed that Best Five gave unfair advantage to SSC students. The state, however, refuted it, saying that nothing prevented other boards from implementing a similar system. ͞The policy of Best Five is adopted only for issuing the marksheet and certificate, and therefore it is entirely the discretion of the ICSE board whether to adopt the policy of Best Five or not for its own students,͛͛ said S P Khorgade, under-secretary, school and education department.‘

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Decision By SC:

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