Private school body expresses concern over extension of revised 2020-21 promotion policy, writes to CBSE

A Delhi-based private school body has expressed its concern over the DoE's decision to extend the revised 2020-21 promotion policy in a letter to CBSE.

A private school body of over 120 private schools in Delhi, the National Progressive Schools’ Conference (NPSC) has written a letter to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) raising concerns about the Directorate of Education’s decision to extend the revised 2020-21 promotion policy for students of class 9 and class 11.

As per the DoE’s revised policy, students’ promotion will be based upon the marks obtained by students in the mid-term (term-1), annual (term-2) examinations in addition to marks scored in internal assessment, project, practical or all taken together.

In her letter to the CBSE, the NPSC chairperson wrote, “As per the revised promotion policy, a maximum of 15 grace marks can be awarded to a student to reach the required 33 per cent marks in one or any number of subjects.”

“So, if a child secures 18/100 in his aggregate (including theoretical and practical internal assessment), giving 15 grace marks will make him eligible to be promoted to the next grade,” she explained further.

“Also, as per the revised rules, a child failing to secure 33 per cent marks is eligible to appear in the compartment examination for all the subjects in which he has failed to secure 33 per cent,” she added.

Explaining her concerns over the revised policy, she said,“The cause of concern is that awarding compartment examination in all the subjects will amount to re-examination.”

“It will also not gauge how much knowledge the child has actually attained and will further widen the learning gap that has already been created during two long years of the pandemic,” she said.