20,000 SSLC students pass after being granted 'grace marks' by Karnataka Exam Board

Had grace marks not helped about 20,000 students of the 8.56 lakh who appeared for SSLC exams in 2018, the pass percentage would have dropped by about 2 percent
A group of students rejoice after the SSLC results were announced in Bengaluru on Monday | Pushkar v
A group of students rejoice after the SSLC results were announced in Bengaluru on Monday | Pushkar v

Despite the state primary and secondary education minister Tanveer Sait saying several times that the department had done away with the practice of giving grace marks to pass students, the Karnataka Education and Examination Board (KSEEB) said it had gone ahead and granted grace marks for students needing them in SSLC exams 2018 with which at least about 20,000 students passed — which is about 2 percent of the total number of students who appeared for the exams.

Dr Reju MT, commissioner for the Department of Public Instruction said, "The students who have a difference of less than 5% for the passing marks have been given grace marks and as per the rules it is allowed to give grace marks of up to 5% in two subjects."

There are two types of grace marks: one will be given during the evaluation in case if there are wrong questions, errors or any out-of-syllabus questions; the other type of grace marks is given at the stage of tabulation wherein a student needs lesser than 5% to pass the exams. For example, if a student secured above 50 in other subjects and secures 25 in one particular subject, in that case, that particular student is awarded 5 marks and allowed to pass.

Unaided schools performed better

In the SSLC 2018 exams, unaided schools in the state performed better than the aided and government schools. As per data available from the board, over 2,50,640 students from 5,927 unaided private schools appeared for the exams, of which 2,08,154 have passed with the pass percentage being 83.05. And when it comes to government schools, 2,85,594 candidates appeared for exams from 5,191 schools, of which 2,14,545 passed with a pass percentage of 75.12%. And the same is 76.27% in aided schools where 2,08,227 appeared from 3,269 schools and 1,58,819 managed to pass the exams.

Medium-wise results- English fared better

A look at the language medium-wise results reveals that those who studied in English medium schools fared better compared to those who studied in the other six mediums of instructions available in the state.

As many as 2,88,202 candidates appeared for exams from English medium schools, of which 2,34,099 passed. English medium was followed by Marathi medium schools in the state, in which 12,773 students appeared and 9,689 cleared; the third was Kannada medium schools in which 5,10,949 students appeared and 3,43,99 passed.

Rural students shine

Rural students enjoyed a pass percentage of 74 compared to 69.3 among urban students in the state. This goes against a general assumption that urban students, given the accessibility to various facilities, could be doing better, but the rural students have beaten that assumption.

New Initiative

Soon after the announcement of results at around 11am on Monday, the authorities concerned at the board started sending the results of candidates via SMSes to the registered mobile number of the parents. This was a new initiative by the KSEEB. However, the results were even available online and candidates could get their results by logging on to htttp://sslc.kar.nic.in and http://karresults.nic.in. The same will be announced at respective schools on Tuesday by 1pm.

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