BENGALURU: A group of writers, activists and social workers have written an open letter to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, in light of the recent proposal by the state’s education department to reduce the minimum passing marks in SSLC exams. According to the new proposal, the overall pass percentage will be 33 per cent, while the passing mark would be 30 in each subject.
The letter - signed by K Maralusiddappa, SG Siddaramaiah, Niranjanaradhya VP, KS Vimala, Babu Mathew, Banjagere Jayaprakash, Janagere Venkataramaiah, Shripad Bhat, and KM Viswanatha Marathura - states that “the decisions of our state school education department officials and minister are taking the education system to the brink of destruction”. The address points out grave loopholes that underline the lack of forethought behind the proposal.
“This means that if a student scores 20 out of 20 in the internal exam (it is subjective and usually everyone gets 20 out of 20), and only 10 out of 80 marks in the external exam, the student will pass. The truth of the marks of internal assessment in schools is still elusive. Many students who scored 20 out of 20 internal marks in the last examination did not get minimum marks in the external exam. We don’t understand what kind of quality index it is that an objective test to measure the true quality of learning is an external test and just 10 marks in it is enough (sic),” it states.
“This change is not an assessment of the basic purpose of education, the ability of the student, interest and diligence in learning, intelligence, thinking power and achievement, but a change that is pushing students towards numerical passing (sic),” the letter added.