Best-5 ruling: haze over who gains,who loses

“As long as SSC students are allowed to keep the best-five system,we are happy,” said Jayant Jain,chairman of the Forum for Fairnesss in Education and parent of an SSC student. But SSC student Shraddha Shah said,“Best-five was introduced because the ICSE and CBSE follow a more liberal marking pattern. If ICSE also has best-five,then there will be disparity like earlier.”

The ICSE camp,on the other hand,was relieved to share the benefit given to SSC candidates,but students worried about their marksheets,wondering whether these would need reworking if they opted for best-five.

“The situation now is definitely much better than earlier which was heavily lopsided in favour of SSC students,” said Perin Bagli,secretary of the ICSE Schools Association of Maharashtra and principal of Activity High School,Pedder Road. “ICSE students will have an option now. If they are at an advantage by counting their best five subjects,they can go for the option. If not,they can stick to the earlier format where all seven subjects were counted,” Bagli said.

“However there is still much confusion about whether we have to rework the marksheets or whether students will have to mark their preferences on the admission forms,” said Bagli.

Ranjani Swaminathan,principal of St Gregorius High School (ICSE),Chembur,welcomed the decision but said best-five is not the ideal solution. “At such a basic level if students stop studying one subject it can be a disadvantage to them later in life. However,since we had anticipated this situation,we have made marksheets on the basis of the best five subjects (the total is 500) and also in the existing way,all seven subjects with a total of 700,” said Swaminathan.

Dr C V Hegde,whose son studies in Campion ICSE school in Colaba,is not entirely happy. Hegde was one of the petitioners who had challenged best-five in the Bombay High Court,which struck it down,prompting the state to appeal in the Supreme Court.

“Best-five is unconditional for SSC students,but it has come with many conditions for ICSE students. It is a misconception that Grade 3 subjects are high scoring (in the ICSE pattern). These are applications-based subjects like computer and commerical training which are equally tough. We are not entirely happy with the decision but since it is taken by the highest authority in the country we have no option but to abide by it,” said Hegde.

Across the state this year,about 16 lakh students appeared for the SSC exams and about 10000 ICSE students.