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MUMBAI: An SSC student who dragged the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education to court for a single mark, won the case on Tuesday.

Yashvi Gogri (inset), a student of St Joseph’s School in Orlem, Malad, saw that her answer to a ‘personal-response’ type question on ‘measures to avoid noise pollution in the classroom’ was marked wrong as it did not match the model answer of the board. Since her answer was correct and the board allegedly refused to acknowledge it, the student decided to move court. After a year-long battle against the board, her aggregate score will now go up from 95.2% to 95.4%. Gogri had appeared for her board exam last year.

“I sought the photocopies of all my answersheets to preserve it with me. When I saw that I got two marks less in Science despite writing the right answers, I sought a re-evaluation. After reviewing my papers, the board decided to give me one mark. But, I was confident about getting one more mark, which was denied. We, therefore, decided to move court in August,” said Gogri, who lost the top position in her school to another student with 95.4% score. Her original score was 95%, which was later revised to 95.2% and now will go up to 95.4%, same as the school topper.

While the board’s model answer to the question on noise pollution in the classroom suggested ‘avoid making a lot of noise, not shout loudly’, as the answer, Gogri wrote, ‘appoint a prefect or a monitor, punish the children if they make noise, give some work to children to occupy their time and keep them busy’ in three points. Her mother, Jasmine, said that her daughter had given an elaborate answer. “In fact the suggested answer by the board was incomplete. There was no reason for deducting her marks,” said her mother. Jasmine added, “I am currently preparing for NEET for medical admissions. The SSC aggregate score will be used as a one of the tie-breakers to decide merit ranks in NEET. With tough competition from students CBSE and ICSE, every mark counts for us.”

During their year-long battle, many people tried to discourage the family from pursuing the matter in court. “It was not an easy fight. But I do not understand why students have to go through this grueling process, when the board itself could have given the mark to her,” said Jasmine.

Mumbai divisional board chairperson, D Jagtap, said that the board’s model answer is decided by an expert committee. “The papers are also re-evaluated by expert committee and we go by their report. But if the court has directed to grant the student the mark, we will have to follow the order,” he said. The board in its reply to the court, termed the petition as “frivolous”. They also wrote that “the students cannot dictate to consider the correctness of the answers as written by them”.

