Experts to compare HSC, CBSE exams

Nagpur: A high-powered committee of educational experts will be appointed to evaluate the equivalence of Class 12 of HSC (Higher Secondary School Education) and CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) boards, higher education minister Vinod Tawde announced in the Legislative Assembly on Monday.

MLAs including Sunil Prabhu and Abu Azmi, through calling attention motion in the Assembly, raised the issue of the passing percentage of CBSE Class 12 students being greater (by 5 per cent) than that of their HSC counterparts, owing to which the latter were lagging behind. In response, Mr Tawde clarified that HSC board students would not suffer.

While the syllabus of Class 11 and Class 12 of the HSC board is the same as that of the respective Classes of the CBSE board, an expert committee will study the equivalence of the examinations of both the boards. The examination of CBSE students carries 500 marks while that of HSC students carries 650 marks. For Class 10 examinations, the government has adopted the policy of “Best 5” (percentage calculated as per the best marks obtained in five subjects) and admissions to Class 11 are done on that basis.

The expert committee will give its report before Diwali and an appropriate decision will be taken based on its recommendations, said Mr Tawde.

Meanwhile, BJP MLA Raj Purohit demanded that Class 11 students should get admission in junior colleges near their homes. In reality however, south Mumbai students were getting admissions in colleges in the suburbs due to which they had to travel daily. Responding to Mr Purohit’s demand, Mr Tawde announced one more committee to zero in on the formula for giving admissions to Class 11 students based on the neighbourhood school concept.