New Delhi, 08 August 2018: A meeting to review the Policy of Moderation of marks to avoid spiking of marks was convened by the Secretary (School Education and Literacy), in Ministry of Human Resource Development, on 24 April 2017 with State Education Secretaries and Chairpersons of State Education Boards, including the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).

In the meeting, all State Boards also decided to constitute Inter Board Working Group (IBWG) comprising of Chairpersons of the State Boards of Secondary Education of Gujarat, Jammu & Kashmir, Kerala, Telengana, Chhattisgarh, Manipur, Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) with Chairman, CBSE as the Convener of the IBWG.As per the meeting, the following decisions in regard to moderation of marks for upward revision/spiking of marks were taken unanimously:

This information was given by the Minister of State (HRD), Mr Upendra Kushwaha today in a written reply to a Lok Sabha question.

(i) All State Boards decided to stop awarding moderation of marks for upward revision/spiking of marks from the current year except Kerala Board and subject to amendment in the State regulations, if required. However, Kerala Board conveyed to do away with moderation from the next year.

(ii) All State Boards decided to continue with the policy of Grace Marks for lower level performance to improve the pass percentage but the policy should be placed on Board’s web-site for transparency. It was also decided to show grace marks distinctly in the Marks Sheet.

Subsequently, two meetings of the Inter-Board Working Group were held to deliberate upon the issue. In the light of the outcomes of these high level meetings it was decided to recommend implementation of the following by all School Education Boards:

Practice of awarding moderation marks should be done away with, except in the cases of ambiguity in the question paper, inter-set variation in difficulty level (if multiple sets system exists in the Board) and vagaries in the evaluation process based on statistical analysis. Bunching of marks and their spiking should be completely avoided.

The practice of awarding grace marks should continue to pass the border line cases. The policy of grace marks should also be disclosed by all Boards on their websites.

The weightage of extra-curricular activities should be same across all the Boards. Boards should show performance of students in extra-curricular activities separately on the marks statement rather than adding them into their scholastic performance.

The moderation policy and quantum of moderation given, if any, should also be disclosed by all Boards on their websites on a year-to-year basis.

The Minister informed that all the Educations Boards have been requested for implementation of the above decision in a transparent manner. The implementation of the above decision would help in bringing uniformity in evaluation process, parity of results and improve quality of Education with emphasis on learning outcomes.