Students, parents hail HC move to continue moderation

Delhi University aspirants have welcomed the Delhi High Court's decision directing the Central Board of Secondary Education to continue with the grace marks or 'marks moderation' policy, as the move helped diffuse the tension of aspirants expecting their Class XII marks.

The moderation policy offers grace marks to students, who fall short of a few marks from passing the board exam. The grace marks are also given to students who faced difficult questions or questions riddles with errors.

"This was really a welcome relief for us. I have been stressed over the past few days. There were some tough questions in the accountancy paper, and did not want to lose out on a few marks. I never expected this decision," said Shivi from St Xavier's School.

The CBSE had recently – in a move widely criticised by the students – decided to scrap the moderation policy to curtail the sky rocketing cut-offs.

However, state boards did not scrap the policy for the upcoming year, giving students from the state boards an edge over Delhi-based and other students giving the CBSE exam.

Countless students never expected this decision, as they had no idea that such an important decision would be taken at the last moment.

Many have, however, also viewed the High Court's decision with skepticism, as they believe that the CBSE will not be able to undertake the entire process of tabulating the results with the moderation policy.

There are several students who still have doubts. Arush, a student from Sanskriti School, said: "The board scrapped the policy to curtail the high cut-offs. Now the cut-offs will increase and many people will miss out on the seats. I think we reached from where we started," he said.

"I don't think that the CBSE invigilators will be able to recheck the papers and provide us grace marks. It will really be a cumbersome process," said Samyak, from Manavsthali School.

Meanwhile, CBSE officials have clarified that the High Court decision will not hamper the results as inculcating the moderation policy into the already tabulated result is not a time consuming task.

With the CBSE results having been delayed, many parents also managed to smile as they welcomed the move.

"Every student should be taken care off. There have been students who thought they would fail in a particular subject. At least they will not be repeating a year," said Archana Gupta, the mother of a DU aspirant.