The marks that CBSE schools award to Class X students in any subject this session, in the absence of board exams, will be limited by the scores its students obtained in the board exams of the past three years.

First, if the school’s students have scored an overall average of 71, 74 and 72 per cent in the last three board exams, say, then the year in which they scored the highest overall average of 74 will be the “reference year” for awarding this year’s marks, the CBSE has decreed.

Next, the average marks the school’s students obtained in each subject in the year in which their overall average was 74 will be considered. This year’s students cannot be awarded marks in any subject that is more than two per cent higher or lower than the average score their peers scored in that subject in the reference year.

Suppose, the school’s students had secured an average of 78 in English in the year in which their overall average score was 74. Then, this year, the school cannot award its students more than 80 or less than 76 in English.

Academics suggested that such a “moderation” policy would hurt the best students on the pretext of ensuring “reasonably reliable, unbiased and fair” marking.

Since the CBSE has cancelled the Class X board exams citing the Covid resurgence, the schools will have to mark students under a policy that accords 20 per cent weight to internal assessment and 80 per cent to school-based exams.

If a school’s students have not appeared in the boards before, the CBSE will provide the district, state and national averages of the last two years relating to schools of the same type, that is, KVS schools for a KVS school or private schools for a private school. The highest overall average score will determine the reference year.

Of the 80 per cent weight accorded to the school-based exams, 10 per cent weight will be accorded to periodic tests, 30 per cent to the half-yearly test and 40 per cent to the pre-board exam.If a school has not held any internal exams this academic year, it can do so now online or offline, the CBSE has said.

Jitendra Sharma, a retired professor who taught at the teacher training institute in Jaipur, said the new system of average-based marking would hurt the better students. “Each student is different and each batch is different,” he said.

The CBSE has asked the schools to send the marks by June 5. The results will be announced by June 20.