No internal assessment for Class IX students from 2018

Mumbai: From the academic year 2018-19, students of class 9 of the Maha board would not have ‘internal assessment’ meaning oral exams, for language and social studies subjects.

The Maharashtra State Board of Secondary Education and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSEHSE) will scrap the 20 marks, which the schools are liable to give as internal assessment. This will be applied to English, Hindi, Marathi, History, Civics and Geography. According to the board, some students were seen scoring 20 out of 20 in their internal assessment and score less than 10 marks in externals i.e., written examinations.

Before 2010, when the board decided to bring in internal assessment, it was in order to improve students’ communication skills especially through language subjects. “In oral examinations, interaction only betters students’ communication skills and hence the idea of internal assessment worked. However, many parents, teachers and the expert panel mentioned that schools give away marks in order to pass students,” said Siddheshwar Chandekar, divisional secretary, MSBSEHSE.

The examination pattern this year is 80:20 that means 80 marks through written examination and 20 through oral examination. However, after this circular, class 9 students of the board will have to appear for 100 marks written exam. Next year, MSBSEHSE has decided to apply the same format for the class 10 students. “Same rule will be applicable for the class 10 students from 2019-20 and this will lead to fair results,” Chandekar added.

Subjects like Science Technology and Maths will continue.

Mixed reactions on move

Principals and teachers have hailed the decision of scrapping the internal assessment for class 9 students. However, as the circular came out on July 28, which is when the unit tests commence, the teachers are unhappy as they were not informed about this change beforehand. “No training was conducted for us. We got a circular that stated scrapping the internal assessment,” said a teacher. On the other side, majority were happy as this would make students study more. “Now-a-days it has become very easy for a student to score high marks as they get 20/20 in their internals. Such a move will bring down the high scorers and give chance to students who have actually worked hard,” said Saira Kennedy, principal of St. Lawrence High School, Vashi.