It is that time of the year when children who finish school pack their bags for the next phase of their lives. Last week, my son’s school had a felicitation ceremony for the Class XII students who had done well in the CBSE Board exams. The plans of the top three students revealed how little those results mattered. The first was an engineering aspirant who was going to go where his JEE rank would take him. The second was taking a gap year to “find herself” and the third was going to a posh private university in the city which accepts all who can pay their fees. The 98 per cent and 97 per cent on their marksheets were irrelevant to their choices and unlikely to ever matter in their lives.
Class X and XII Board exams have been a milestone event in the lives of generations of Indians. Families would go to great lengths to ensure that the child is not distracted, switching off the TV for the entire year, not taking vacations or entertaining guests.
But changes in higher education in recent times have left students, parents and teachers puzzled about the importance of the Board exams. The Class XII Boards were critical because the results would determine which college you got admission into. However, with the introduction of the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) in 2021, the XII Boards performance has become irrelevant to those interested in taking up a BA/BCom or BSc degree. For engineering, there is JEE, most medical colleges are covered under NEET. Architecture, law, design or science research institutes all have their own entrance exams and only require minimum qualifying marks in the XII Boards of 45-50 per cent. Scoring these marks doesn’t require burning the midnight oil, so students prefer to prepare for entrance exams and barely even attend classes. So the question is: Why should students care about their performance in the XII Board exams anymore?
The Board exams hold great importance only for the tiny slice of well-heeled Indians who are planning to go abroad for their undergraduate studies because the universities in the West use it as an indicator of academic calibre. For the vast majority aiming to study in India, the XII marksheet, once a revered document, is now just another ID proof.
Meanwhile, teachers are still trying to adjust to the new reality. They are increasingly dealing with students who have a lackadaisical approach to assignments and tests, many of them not even bothering to submit their work or attend school regularly.
China, with whom we like to compare ourselves, has an exacting exam at the end of school called Gaokao. There is no ambiguity about its importance. The Gaokao score is the singular determinant of whether students can enter their preferred university or college. In the three days of June when the exam is held, the government clears roads, arranges transport for the high school students to reach their exam halls and enforces noise control measures around exam centres.
On the other hand, we have a dozen different exams, most of which are mired in controversy because either they have been leaked or there were errors in the paper.
The NEET 2024 paper leak was only the most high profile among a long line of such fiascos. New reports have tracked down as many as 70 paper leaks in the past decade from competitive exams to state high school exams across Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Telangana, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Bihar. Months later, if at all, the exams are conducted again, crushing aspirants’ morale.
There are other ways in which competitive exams are flawed. Errors, typos and misprints, are unfortunately all too commonplace, confusing students who waste precious time trying to decode mistakes. The Common Law Admission Test (CLAT), taken by an estimated one lakh students in December 2024, is a case in point. Following an array of confusingly worded questions and wrong answers, several students filed cases against the Consortium of Law Schools, the body that conducts CLAT. After the Supreme Court’s intervention, results were declared after a five-month delay. This year’s intensely competitive JEE Mains had a record number of incorrectly framed questions.
For a 16-17 year old, a public exam is their first brush with the “system”. They trust the process and assume that the establishment will function as it should. When it doesn’t, it is a shock, and cynicism about the country, and their own future in it, is planted early. In its present state, the mere pursuit of higher education in India is daunting and designed to frustrate rather than nurture youthful talent. The grind that children put in for their Board exams must be respected by making each exam have a clear purpose, setting the paper responsibly, and conducting it fairly. That’s a small ask for the precious demographic dividend, which is expected to give India its competitive edge for the next couple of decades.
Vasudevan is the author of OTP Please!
For a 16-17 year old, a public exam is their first brush with the “system”. They trust the process and assume that the establishment will function as it should. When it doesn’t, it is a shock, and cynicism about the country, and their own future in it, is planted early 
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