Angry CM pulls up officials for granting grace marks for SSLC exams

Bengaluru: Upset with the School Education and Literacy department’s decision to award grace marks in the Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) examinations this year, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar on Friday reportedly pulled up officials.

During the review meeting, the chief minister sought to know from the Principal Secretary of the department whose decision it was to award grace marks.

When the official tried to justify the decision by saying that grace marks were hiked during the Covid-19 pandemic, Siddaramaiah is said to have got angry. Sources present at the meeting said, “The chief minister told the officials that increasing and awarding grace marks during the pandemic was acceptable, but questioned the need to give it now.”

According to sources, Siddaramaiah termed the move to award grace marks nothing but “mass copying”. “Mentioning the strict measures taken during the exams, the CM told officials that allotting grace marks after installing CCTV cameras and web streaming is nothing but mass copying. He said it was not acceptable,” added the source.

The CM even wondered what purpose the exams served when those not able to score even 10 to 15 marks needed help, the sources said. Siddaramaiah said this amounted to injustice to merit students who had studied throughout the year.

Siddaramaiah gave examples of students of government schools who had emerged first and third toppers.

Deputy CM Shivakumar directed officials to fix the responsibility on Deputy Directors, Block Education Officers and teachers for improving the quality teaching.

At the meeting, the chief minister instructed officials to scrap the grace marks system. Speaking to reporters after the meeting, School Education and Literacy Minister Madhu Bangarappa said there will be no grace marks for SSLC exams next year.

“This year, a fall in the results was expected as we had taken some decisions to ensure sanctity of exams,” he said. He said students who had appeared for SSLC this year belonged to the class 6-7 batch during the Covid pandemic.