After 90:10 system,thumbs down for ‘best of five’,too

The group said it would now write a letter to Chief Minister Ashok Chavan asking him to reconsider the move or provide more details about the ways of implementing the policy before it is brought into effect.

The state education board has proposed the ‘best of five’ system for the first year junior college (FYJC) admissions from 2010-11 academic year to bring about parity between SSC board students and those from other boards like CBSE,ICSE,IB etc.

According to the system,the marks of those five subjects in which the student had scored the highest would be counted while calculating the overall percentage and discounting the marks for the subject in which he or she scores the least.

However,most of the 300 students,teachers and parents present at the meet felt that the government had not made the policy clear to them. “No modalities or the structure of the law has been formulated. The state is just doing something for the sake of it,without putting much thought in to it. The need is to improve the quality of education and update the syllabus rather than introducing such vague concepts,” said Rajesh Mathuria,father of a Standard X student of the Victoria School.

Sunita Godbole,member of Parents Teachers Association United Forum which organized the meeting,said that there is still a lot of disparity between SSC students and those in CBSE or ICSE. “CBSE and ICSE syllabus is more up-to-date with less emphasis on rote learning and more objective questions. SSC board needs to put emphasis on actual learning rather than making a student mug up 24 chapters for 40 marks,” said Godbole.

Samidha Raul,a class 10 student of the Canossa High School in Bandra,said students were confused about the move. “My friends who are weak in mathematics but still want to opt for the science field are wondering if they should stop studying the subject,” Samidha said.