There was an overwhelming demand for the introduction of grading system in the Intermediate examinations in line with the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examinations already in vogue, from the participants at a meeting of college managements called by the Board of Intermediate Education (BIE).
The meeting was called to seek the views of parents and college managements on the increasing number of suicides by students in Intermediate colleges, particularly the corporate ones. Parents and a section of private managements argued that unnecessary pressure for marks and the subsequent effort by the corporate colleges to force students to secure high marks was the main reason for psychological disturbance among teenagers and grading was the only way to put an end to the rat race.
Later, Special Chief Secretary Ranjeev Acharya briefed the media and said new guidelines would be issued soon and all the Intermediate colleges have to follow them.
She said the guidelines would be broadly on following the academic calender strictly with holidays to be given as per schedule and the working hours to be from 9.30 a.m. to 4.30 p.m.
The new guidelines also say that the managements should not pressurise the students to pay more in the name of coaching for entrance tests, while professional counsellors should be employed.
Games and sports in the evening hours should be made mandatory while practices like meditation and yoga should be introduced in the daily schedule.
Regular parents’ meetings to discuss the development of their children and orientation programme for parents with lectures on parental role and understanding adolescent psychology should be a part of the calender.
