Unhappy over the internal assessment marks given to her daughter in Class X by a city school, an IPS officer from Gujarat Tuesday lodged a complaint with the Central Board of Secondary education (CBSE).
In his complaint, the officer, Vipul Aggarwal, has claimed schools are misusing the "freedom" given for internal assessment of students and acting in an "arbitrary manner".
The 2001-batch Gujarat cadre officer emailed his complaint to CBSE chairperson Anita Karwal Tuesday, a day after the board declared its Class X results.
Aggarwal is currently posted in Ahmedabad city as the Joint Commissioner of Police (Administration).
In the email, Aggarwal said her daughter has secured 89.6 per cent in the Class X exam, obtaining 448 of the total 500 marks.
For each subject carrying 100 marks, the CBSE conducts exams for 80 marks, while schools take test for the remaining 20, called internal assessment (IA) or practical.
As per the marksheet, her daughter secured 91 per cent in the 'theory' papers of 80 marks each conducted by the CBSE while her score remained 84 per cent when it comes to 'practical' marks given by her school, which according to Aggarwal, has lowered her daughter's overall grade.
In mathematics and science, she has secured 76 and 75, respectively, out of the total 80 in the 'theory' segment.
However, she was given 15 and 17, respectively, out of the total 20 by her school.
"It may be seen that in most cases, the grades given by school are much less compared to what she has scored in theory examination, resulting in lowering of her overall percentage.
"In fact, the difference is to the extent of 20 per cent in mathematics, which is absurd," said Aggarwal while talking to media persons.
Comparing his daughter's marks with a male student of a CBSE school in Uttar Pradesh, Aggarwal claimed though the latter secured 75.25 per cent in 'theory', he was given 20 out of 20 in all the subjects by his school, which helped him in securing higher grades.
"Thus, a student scoring just 55 per cent in mathematics and 65 per cent in science theory papers gets 100 per cent in internal assessment.
"Does that seem a justified internal grading," asked Aggarwal, who clarified he is just questioning the freedom given to the schools, not the marks given to her daughter by her school.
"Madam, I dont wish to contest on the grades given by school either, but my objection is to the freedom given by CBSE to schools to assign grades to schools in a completely arbitrary manner," the IPS officer said in the complaint.
He claimed that while some schools are giving high grades in internal assessment, as much as 100 per cent, some others are conservative, which results in injustice to students.
"The disturbing aspect is that CBSE has so far been helpless in curbing this. When we are talking about an all- India uniform examination standard, why are there such discrepancies and aberrations, harming students?" he said.
"I, therefore, call upon the intervention of your good offices to ensure more discipline and responsibility is imposed on the schools so that the students' careers do not suffer and the credibility of the esteemed institution is maintained," he said.
Aggarwal, himself a Class X topper in 1991, suggested the board should consider abolishing the IA system altogether or set a clear and objective methodology for it.
He also suggested that the final practical examination at schools be conducted by independent examiners.
Aggarwal said the current assessment system is at fault, not her daughter's school.
"My contention is that CBSE does not have any control on the internal assessment carried out by schools. My daughter's overall percentage has been affected because of lower grades given by the school in the internal assessment," said the officer.
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