The Bengaluru school that marked a six-year-old Upper KG student “fail” has revised the status of the girl’s result as “pass” in its app.
“St Joseph Chaminade Academy pre-primary school has revised the app for results and has removed the word ‘FAIL’ from my daughter’s report card,” the student’s father Manoj Badal told South First.
Though the school removed the word “fail”, the parent expressed concern that the school continues to follow the marks system for such young children.
The majority of schools only grade children and do not publish marks on either the app or marks cards, but this school continues to mark children. Moreover, the school app has first, second, and third ranks mentioned on it.
“Isn’t this wrong?” asked Manoj.
The Associated Managements of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka president D Shashikumar concurred that it was best to avoid such marks and rank systems.
“Ranks were earlier considered to motivate children, but they can in fact demotivate them. The system of grading is ideal. Teachers in especially pre-primary assessments should do assessments holistically and not mark them like this,” explained Dr Preethi Galgali, a child psychologist from NIMHANS in Bengaluru.
Related: Bengaluru school marks UKG student ‘Fail’; parents demand action
Error corrected after notice
The parent took to social media after St Joseph Chaminade Academy pre-primary school marked his daughter “Fail” in the UKG exam.
After South First reported the incident, Anekal Block Education Officer (BEO) Jayalakshmi took note of the same and sent a notice to the school seeking an explanation.
In their explanation, the school reportedly said that it was a technical error on their end and would rectify the mistake.
On Sunday, 12 February, the school app was updated and that changed the status of the student’s report card, keeping the marks as is but removing the word “Fail” from the system.
Related: School that ‘failed’ UKG student gets Education Department notice
The incident
Manoj, a bank manager by profession, was shocked to see his daughter’s marks card on the mobile app of the school with a “Fail” written in red. When checked, it was seen that she had managed to score a total of 100 out of 160.
“But she scored only five out of 40 in rhymes while the minimum passing mark was 14,” explained the girl’s father Manoj Badal to South First.
When approached, the school issued a physical marks card that said she passed. Thinking that it was a technical error from the school’s side, the parent approached the principal of the school through WhatsApp.
A detailed explanation was then given, stating that since the child had not been able to recite two rhymes — given two chances — she had to be failed.
Manoj was aghast with the explanation, especially when the principal stated that the child should be shown the digital marks card and explained that she had “failed”.
Dismayed with this explanation, the parents even repeated communication with the management and the principal of the school over email and got the same response. They took the incident to Facebook and shared a post explaining the situation.
Later, the BEO sent a notice to the school seeking an explanation post, after which the result was corrected on the app.
