Almost one third of the 8.5 lakh Class 10 students studying in Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSHSEB) who had been promoted to Class 11 in the academic year 2020-21 had to be awarded grace marks to make it through the threshold score. Notably, a minimum of 33% is required to pass the exams. Thus, it implies that around 2.66 lakh students got through the Class 10 examination by obtaining grace marks.
Data further reveals that around 170 of the 2.66 lakh students obtained up to 200 extra marks, while 9, 400 students procured 100 grace marks. During the pandemic, when the learning had come to a standstill and CBSE and most of the state boards had cancelled the Class 10 and 12 Term end exams, 8.5 lakh Class 10 students of GSHSEB were promoted to Class 11.
Analysing the data district-wise reveals that the highest number of students who claimed benefit of grace marks hailed from Banaskantha, where around 19,700 students made it to Class 11 this way. Surat stood at the second place under the list with 17,750 such students, which was shocking as the district holds the record for registering the highest passing percentage consistently. This is followed by the Vadodara district, where 13,600 students reached Class 11 with the grace marks to their aid.
As the exams were cancelled owing to the pandemic, the Gujarat school board had conceived a method to calculate the total marks obtained by a student. The method incorporated by schools encompassed considering the performance of students of Class 9 and 10 as the base to extrapolate the Board results. 40% of the total marks stood applicable for the students of Class 9, while the rest was for the internal tests of Class 10. Thus, considering this formula, the students who were unable to pass, i.e. those who had failed in the unit tests, were awarded grace marks.