KOLKATA: ICSE and ISC students may have to brace themselves for life without “moderation” from the next academic session itself.

The Council of Indian School Certificate Examinations advised principals of affiliated schools in the city to spread the word among teachers and students.

All central and state boards are likely to meet to frame a policy on this vexed issue after the Supreme Court gives its verdict.

“Moderation” of marks refers to a standard practice of increasing marks, primarily to “lift” students above the pass percentage. But this has a cascading effect on most other students as evaluators often increase marks correspondingly for high scorers as well, mainly “for the purpose of fairness”.

This practice, say most educationists, have led to a situation where a disproportionately large number of students score more than 95% at the upper end of the spectrum.

“We have been told to wait for a final decision but we know which way the ball is rolling,” the principal of a top city school told TOI. “The ministry of human resources development has already clarified that it is not in favour of continuing the moderation policy,” she added.

Another school principal said the problem was compounded because of the absence of a uniform policy of “moderating marks”.

“Different boards go to different extents and this ensures there is no level playing field,” he said. Principals across the board admitted that the number of failures would increase manifold, particularly in subjects like Mathematics, Physics and English, if “marks were not moderated”.

“It will be a struggle for schools to safeguard their reputation if there is a dip in the success rate or high scorers’ performance, said another principal. “The SC’s decision will be a collective one and the CISCE will go along with all other boards once there is a directive from the apex court,” said Nabarun De, principal of Central Modern School, Baranagar and secretary of the association of ICSE schools in Bengal.

