The announcement of the CBSE Class XII results on Wednesday has sent shockwaves through the student community in Kerala. Despite the Thiruvananthapuram region once again securing the top spot in the country’s overall pass percentage, the mood on the ground is far from celebratory.
Parents and school authorities report that even top-tier students, who consistently scored 95% to 99% in internal assessments, have found themselves with significantly lower marks, leading to a sense of widespread despondency and confusion.
The Toll of “Tough” Evaluation: Science Stream Facing Double Trauma
The disappointment is particularly acute for Science stream students, who are already grappling with the recent cancellation of the NEET-UG examination. Many students have expressed total bewilderment over their scores in core subjects like Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics. Teachers have pointed to lengthy, time-consuming question papers as a primary factor, noting that the awarding of A1 grades for scores as low as 85 in Mathematics suggests a much lower global average than in previous years. Tragically, the pressure has already taken a severe toll, with at least one student death reported in Kollam following the result publication.
Systemic Glitches? Concerns Over the New On-Screen Marking System
A significant portion of the blame is being directed at the newly introduced On-Screen Marking (OSM) system. Educators allege that a lack of uniformity in difficulty levels across different regional question sets, combined with evaluators’ unfamiliarity with the digital interface, may have led to scoring errors.
Concerns have also been raised about answer scripts being evaluated outside the state and the lack of a rigorous cross-checking process that was standard during manual evaluation. As students prepare to flood the board with revaluation requests, many parents are calling for accountability, questioning if a year of hard work has been compromised by systemic inefficiencies.