SSC results: Class of Covid-19 breaks all records

The muchanticipated Secondary School Certificate SSC results without the exam was declared on Friday by the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education But as of Friday evening it was inaccessible to lakhs of students as the website of the Board crashed The school education minister has initiated an inquiry in the matter However the results have created a number of recordsAs the marks are inflated be it passing percentage number of cent per cent scorers those with 90 per cent and above almost everything is the highest this yearHowever after the result was officially declared by the Maharashtra State Board in Pune it was to be accessible for students from 1 pm on Friday but the website remained unavailable till 8 pm Initially people assumed that it could be because of the heavy traffic but soon the delay made everyone suspicious as it had never been the issue during board resultsSuyash Mali one of many students from Mumbai who tried to check their results on the website was left very disappointed when he could not access it even till late on FridayLakhs of students their parents schools ndash all were excited to check their first ever nonexam results but very few were able to access itStudents parents upsetldquoInitially the website was not opening Finally when it opened it kept crashing after I entered my detailsrdquo said Vighnesh Santhoshkumar a studentldquoWhile the website remained inaccessible for most students especially in Mumbai in rural parts some students were able to access Later in the evening few from Mumbai too were able to access itrdquo said Dineshkumar Gupta a teacher who is popular on YouTube for his tutorialsldquoThere is no change in the number of students when compared with previous years What happened this yearrdquo questioned Rupesh Jha a parent from KandivliAnother parent Umesh Nair said ldquoThe result was a compilation of marks in the final exam of Std IX and the marks of internal evaluation during Std X in formats such as project assignments practicals and vivas etc It was uploaded by schools on the website given by the state board And yet the sole responsibility of the board mdash to make it accessible for students mdash was not carried out properlyrdquoVasant Kalpande former chairperson of the Maharashtra State BoardTeachers and school principals had no answers to queries by students and parents ldquoThis feels like the year of waiting Initially we waited for school to start Then after online school began we waited for the exam to take place Then the exam was cancelled and we waited to know how they would declare the result After they declared the format we waited for the result Now they have declared the result and we are waiting to get our marksrdquo said Chaitanya Gade a frustrated studentldquoThanks to the lack of preparation by the Maharashtra State Board over 15 lakh students and their parents are undergoing tremendous mental pressure This result was declared in an unconventional way as the exam had to be cancelled due to the pandemic And now keeping everyone waiting without any clarity on what the issue is is really wrongrdquo said Anil Bornare president of the BJP Teachersrsquo CellChairman of the Maharashtra State Board Dinkar Patil was unavailable for comment School Education Minister Varsha Gaikwad said she has initiated an inquiry into the website crash ldquoWe apologise for the inconvenience caused by the SSC result link being inaccessible due to a technical issue I have ordered a full inquiry into the incident Strict action will be taken against all those responsible to ensure that such incidents donrsquot recurrdquo she tweetedRecords broken againThe SSC result has broken many records Be it passing percentage number of cent percent scorers those with 90 per cent and above and even schools with 100 per cent result mdash almost everything is the highest this year as the marks have been inflated Maharashtra has recorded passing percentage of 9995 this year which is a steep rise from last yearrsquos 9530 per cent which was the highest in past 10 yearsBasanti Roy former secretary Mumbai division Maharashtra State boardA total of 1575806 students had registered for the SSC this year out of which marks were obtained for 1575752 students of which 1574994 have passed the examination Only 758 students have failed This year there are a total of 957 students across Maharashtra who have scored cent per cent out of these 32 are from Mumbai division which ranks only seventh in the list of nine divisions Latur division has the highest mdash a total of 278 students scoring 100 per cent This was closely followed by Aurangabad and Amravati with 261 and 105 cent per cent scorers respectivelyOnly in Mumbai division out of total 347683 candidates marks were obtained for 347667 and 347537 have passed recording passing percentage of 9996 per cent which was 9672 per cent last year Students of 22767 schools in the state gave the exam and 22384 schools had 100 per cent resultDebate on reliability of resultThe inflated marks are hardly a reason to worry this year as Std XI admissions are to be determined by the Common Entrance Test CET According to educationists the SSC result isnrsquot unreliable but calls for the need to make changes in the board exam evaluation pattern for the years to come as the pandemic condition is here to stay for some timeTalking about the result Basanti Roy former secretary of the Mumbai division of Maharashtra State board said ldquoThis evaluation process was a compromise due to the pandemic Majority of it depended on the marks submitted by schools And this is why the need for CET becomes even more prominent as this cannot be a completely reliable result But another lesson to learn from here is to develop an alternative process of evaluation that can be transparent and ongoing throughout the year so that such a situation can be avoided in futurerdquoContradicting over the reliability factor however Vasant Kalpande former chairperson of the Maharashtra State Board said ldquoThe marks are inflated this year but this cannot be an unreliable result The result is as it was expected to be and most importantly it relieves students of stress Now those vying for specific colleges for Std XI will only have to worry about the CETrdquo However Kalpande also reiterated the need to bring about a shift in evaluation patterns now9996Passing percentage of Mumbai division1574994No of students who have passed in the state