28th February 2003

Dear Parent,

Any educational institution that believes in growth must from time to time evaluate its present structure and bring about such changes as are educationally sound, pedagogically correct and child friendly to a large extent. However, in doing so, all stake holders must not only be informed but consulted and their quality inputs be incorporated at the time of implementation.

The promotion to the next higher class depends on the student's progress throughout the year. There are two rounds of unit tests and one round of exams followed by the annual examination.

The weightage is given as follows:

• 10% - Unit Test 1
• 10% - Unit Test 2
• 30% - Half Yearly Examinations
• 50% - Annual Examination

1. Grades are more reliable than marks.
2. Marks are not reliable indicators of child’s performance because of the various defects in the scoring system.
3. Grading helps in eliminating misclassification of students into different categories.
4. It is experimentally established that the errors of measurement in terms of marks are between 5 to 7 percent and that in more than 50 percent cases, it is more than 5 percent.
5. Present system of fixed scores for assigning division, ranks, positions and declaring ‘pass’ and ‘fail’ is less scientific. It is not possible at the moment to do away with the practice of ‘pass’ and ‘fail’ immediately. However, the final objective to be achieved through Grades is to abolish the present system of declaring the students ‘pass’ or ‘fail’.

In pursuance of the recommendations of various educational commissions and committees, we are introducing the system of declaring results of classes from S1 to S3 in terms of Subjectwise Grades. A committee comprising of teachers, PTA Executive and the Principal focussed its attention on the issue and the inherent problems and suggested a module of grading for replacing marks through an absolute grading method which is simple and straightforward (direct conversion of marks into grades) and hence easy to understand.

1. The grades will be awarded to indicate the subjectwise performance of students throughout the year. The UT1, UT2, H.Y. and the Annual exams will have the same weightage as followed earlier i.e. 10, 10, 30 and 50 respectively.
2. The level of performance indicated by different grades will be as under :

Though, three bottom grades D1, D2 and E are ‘unsatisfactory’, yet the last two grades D2 and E will be treated as non-qualifying grades (NQG) for S3. However, there will be provision for improvement of grades for S3 in two subjects (only) through a subsequent attempt i.e. improvement exam.

1. One D2 or one E – Improvement exam in one subject with NQG
2. Two D2 or one D2 + One E – Improvement exam in two subjects with NQG
3. Three D2 or Two D2 + One E or one D2 + Two E – Deferred Promotion i.e. the student shall have to repeat the class

Another change we plan to bring from this year is to show the answer sheets of the annual examination to the students for any error in (1) total (2) unmarked answer(s). All the students from S1 to S6 are advised to attend the school on 19th March and 20th March 2003 for the above purpose. Regular school time table will be followed on these two days. Answer sheets shall be distributed to the students in their respective class rooms. There will be no assembly or games periods which will be used for the distribution of papers. If a student is absent on any of these days, subject teacher shall take the responsibility of checking the total and unmarked answer(s).

(LATA VAIDYANATHAN)

PRINCIPAL

Note: Terminal and Annual results to be collected by the parents.