MUMBAI: Almost all of the 464 students who got 100% in the March SSC exam this year benefitted from the 25 marks awarded for achievement in sports. The Latur division stood low in the overall performance after recording a high failure rate, but it ironically also had the largest pool of those who scored 100% in March 2011. Nashik had the fewest at 12.
While the state has decided to stop awarding the additional 25 marks to class X and XII students from the next examination, the policy pumped up the scores of many. Pushy parents, ambitious kids and brand-conscious schools responded almost uniformly to this lure.
All through the last five years when the 25 marks were doled out, heads of colleges often confessed that results were no longer the real picture of the knowledge levels of the children. The true picture emerged when all aids that propped up scores-lenient marking, overlooking of grammatical and spelling errors and getting additional marks for extracurricular activities-disappeared in the higher class.
For all its academic might, Rajarshi Shahu Science College, Latur, filled an entire batch in class XI with 100 percenters last year. "We see how each of them is struggling now. Scores went up but students are feeling the pressure of maintaining those marks. We have realized the class X results are not a correct picture of the knowledge levels of students," says Anirudh Jadhav, joint secretary of the college and the architect of the popular Latur model.
Keshavraj Mahavidyalay's vice principal U Selukar derides the 25-mark gimmickry as "banavati marks". Various parts of the state also saw a sudden spurt in private sport academies that enrolled class X students to cash in on the 25-marks bonanza.
Many like Selukar acknowledge that academies had cracked the code of how to convert students into sport stars. "They sign up students for sports like fencing and tug-of-war where the competition isn't fierce and even participation in a state-level competition qualifies them for the 25 marks." Needless to say, after the class X scorecards are handed out, not a single student is seen on the field.
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