The decision to cancel school-leaving examinations cannot be lightly taken. But in-person examinations would be dangerous for students, teachers and other personnel amid the pandemic. So the Supreme Court has approved the proposals of the Central Board of Secondary Education and the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations to compute the final results of Class XII students on the basis of internal assessments. The boards have evolved detailed formulas regarding the weightage of marks — between the Class X results of a student and internal assessments in Classes XI and XII, and between theory and practical work. The problem here is that it is the schools that have awarded the marks from which the final results will emerge. Schools may have been too generous or too miserly with marks, or might attempt to manipulate the assessments. For uniformity of assessment, the two boards will identify a reference year — out of three past years for CBSE schools and six for CISCE ones — in which the school performed best, and will ensure that the computed results do not deviate more than a fixed percentage either way.

The Supreme Court dismissed petitions asking for in-person examinations, ruling in favour of the examination boards that students unhappy with the computed results could sit the examination in person when it was safe. No one would claim that the situation is perfect. The state boards will have to make decisions too. Meanwhile, no formula has been worked out for the Class X results. Class XII results are more urgent because of college admissions. But one fear is that these results will be too generalized to reflect a student’s capabilities. Many teachers feel that students often mature unrecognizably after Class X, so including those results may be unfair, while internal assessments of Class XI, which students often take lightly, would pull down their results. These are undeniable problems, but not being able to join higher education institutions at all would be incalculably damaging. However, the tension preceding the decisions and acceptable solutions may prompt thoughts about the absoluteness of the examination system. The computation formula together with the problems being voiced may be suggestive in this direction.