THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The government has brought out detailed guidelines for award of grace marks, ranging from three to 100 in the 2024 SSLC and higher secondary exams, for students who excel in various extra curricular activities.
No additional index marks (bonus marks) will be given during Class 11 admission to students who were already given grace marks in the SSLC exam, the order issued by the General Education Department has stated.
Students who get ‘A’ grade in events such as State School Arts Festival; Science, Mathematics, Social Science, Work Experience, and IT competitions; State-level science seminars; C V Raman essay contest; Sreenivasa Ramanujan memorial paper presentation, and so on will get 20 marks. Those who get B grade will get 15 marks, and C grade 10 marks. In events with first, second and third positions, students will be awarded 20, 17, and 14 marks, respectively.
For the Special School Arts Festival, ‘A’ grade winners will receive 25 marks, while B and C grade winners will be awarded 20 marks and 15 marks, respectively. While Junior Red Cross volunteers will get 10 marks, 20 marks will be awarded for members of the Student Police Cadet project.
Winners of A, B and C grades in the state children’s science congress will be awarded 20,15 and 10 marks respectively. For participants of the National Children’s Science Congress, 25 marks will be awarded.
Higher secondary students enrolled in Scouts and Guides will get 25 marks for over 80 per cent attendance, 40 marks for Rajya Puraskar/Chief Minister’s shield, and 50 for Rashtrapati award winners. For high school students, the same categories will get 18, 20 and 25 marks respectively.
For the National Service Scheme (NSS), volunteers who take part in Republic Day camp will be awarded 40 marks. Those who have NSS certificates will be given 20 marks. For National Cadet Corps (NCC), the grace marks range from 40 to 20.
The grace marks for other categories are: Little KITES - 15 marks, Jawaharlal Nehru National Exhibition - 25 marks, and Balashree Award winners - 15 marks.
Members of teams that won the first and second prizes in the quiz competition conducted by Kerala State Legal Services Authority will get five and three marks respectively. Sargolsavam A and B grade winners will get 15 and 10 marks respectively, and the winners of first, second and third prizes in Southern India Science Fair will get 22 marks.
Under the sports category, students who win first, second and third prizes in international events will get 100 marks, 90 marks and 80 marks, respectively. All participants in international sports events will be awarded 75 marks.
The grace marks for first, second and third prize winners in national-level sports events are — 50, 40 and 30 respectively. Participants in national sports events will get 25 marks.
For state-level sports events, the first prize winner will get 20 marks and the second and third prize winners will be awarded 17 and 14 marks respectively.
Students getting up to fourth position in athletics or aquatics or games events conducted by the general education department or associations recognised by the State Sports Council or Sports department will get seven marks.
The order states that if high grades bagged by students participating in State Schools Arts Festival or Science, Mathematics, Social Science, Work Experience fairs of students belonging to Classes 8 and 9 are considered for grace marks, it is not necessary that they take part in the State-level events in Class 10 too. It is enough that they get an ‘A’ grade in the same event at the district level.
The order also states that if a student is given grace marks, he or she will not be awarded more index marks (bonus marks) on the basis of grace marks at the next stage of admission. If a student is eligible for grace marks in various categories, only the event that fetches the highest marks will be considered.