Many reasons for SSLC centum spike: Experts

New Indian Express

04-05-2025

BENGALURU: Easy and predictable question paper, lenient evaluation and shortened syllabus were some of the major reasons why the state had a whopping 22 students scoring 625/625, with a dramatic jump from one last year.
Experts, without downplaying the students' efforts, said that getting such a perfect score is very difficult, as the answer scripts would pass through layers of evaluation, specifically language papers, where marks are cut even for spelling mistakes, reducing the possibility of a perfect score.
They argued that the whole learning process will be condensed to 'rote memorisation' rather than 'learning', just to appear among the toppers.
Talking about the leniency in the questions and checking process this year, Shashi Kumar, the General Secretary of Associated Managements of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka (KAMS) said, 'Most of the papers were comparatively easy this year, except for Kannada, and the evaluation was also lenient. However, we also had a bunch of sincere students who studied hard this time.'
Development educationist Professor Niranjanaradhya V P expressed concerns over the objectivity of evaluating theory-based exam papers, particularly those that include long and short-answer questions. He said that while multiple-choice questions (MCQs) have a clear and standardised marking process, the same cannot be said for subjective answers.
'In many cases, students are awarded full marks even for long-answer questions. On the surface, the evaluation appears to be lenient. However, it also heavily depends on the nature and understanding of the evaluator,' he said, highlighting the inconsistencies that may arise due to the lack of uniform assessment practices.
An evaluator said, 'Reduction in syllabus has made it easier for the students to concentrate on fewer topics, helping them to score better this time. And along with that we took multiple extra classes and revision classes, helping them be thorough with the subjects'.
'However this time the questions were predictable, there were so many repeated questions from last year, except for Kannada which included questions from Hale Kannada (Old Kannada) which is quite challenging for the students. It's also that this time the correction was comparatively lenient,' she added.