Schools junk ranks in pre-board tests

Updated on: Sunday, July 11, 2010

Spare the rank and save the child — that’s the latest adage in city schools.

Most of them have decided to do away with the old system of ranking kids in class based on marks in terminal and annual examinations. The reason: this archaic system was increasing stress among children. Since the exam boards have done away with merit lists, there is no reason why schools should continue with such a system, authorities felt.

The new understanding of a child’s development has shifted from just a marks-based assessment to a holistic assessment that includes his behaviour towards adults, peers and school staff, his willingness to serve the community etc. So while ranks have been done away with, marks too are not the only highlights of a star performer in class. A boy can be an average student but might be a great swimmer or might be able to create magic at the keyboard or can be the best behaved in class! This will leverage his report card just as much as marks for someone else, schools say.

“We’ve done away with ranks from the junior classes to Class XII as we wanted kids to stop competing over ranks. Parents would compare them and make their lives miserable. We’ve also stopped giving out subject-wise highest scores against individual scores. Instead, we give the class average so that a parent knows where the kid stands vis-a-vis his class,” explained Sunirmal Chakravarthi, principal of La Martiniere for Boys.

The same system has been put in to place in the junior section of St James School. “We have had cases where parents whose boy had missed the top score by a mark would ridicule the top scorer as a ‘dumb’ boy who might have been ‘favoured’ by the teacher! So we are breeding batches of kids who do not trust or care about classmates. And to imagine that this is the generation that will run the country next!” said principal T H Ireland.

After doing away with ranks, there are some schools that are now doing away with marks as well, never mind the fact that most boards are still giving subject-wise scores alongside grades. Loreto Dharamtala has already introduced a full grade system in report cards in the junior classes and by the end of the year, even children in senior classes will not get to see individual scores but only grades. “Parents would need a lot of counselling as they love to compare marks and pressure children to excel — not realising that marks are not the only parameters to success,” said Sister Mercy, principal of the school.

Even schools affiliated to the state board have done away with ranks in report cards, much to the chagrin of parents. They say that if the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education is giving only marks and grades but no grand total, and if the Higher Secondary Council has gone a step further to give only grades, there is no reason why schools should continue ranking children! “All government run schools like Hare School, Hindu School, Sakhawat Memorial School have stopped giving grand totals, which has automatically ended the system of ranking kids. Parents are not happy, but we are regularly counselling them about the ill-effects of ranking,” said Dipak Das, general secretary of the West Bengal Government School Teachers Association.

Schools junk ranks in pre-board tests

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