Disclaimer: I am happy for my friends and relatives who got recognized for their achievements during the 10th grade examination. I am not writing this to belittle their achievements nor because I missed out (I was never close to be in contention).
Every year in the state of Karnataka on an average 600000 students write the 10th grade examination, and the government announces top 20 scores and the students who scored them. They get their 20mins of fame when their names get published in leading news papers and they get honored at a few ceremonies here and there. All is well, the students who achieved studied hard and got what they truly deserve. The argument I have against this is, it is more of a game of statistics and the 100s of students who missed the top 20 scores by a few 10s of marks deserve the same honor and respect as the top 20 rank holders. Here is why I believe I am right.
Ranks are declared based on sum total of marks scored for six subjects, 3 of which are languages and the other 3 are Science, Mathematics and Social Sciences. The exams are offered in 2 languages of instruction, English and Kannada. Students in rural areas mostly write the exams in Kannada and most of the semi urban and urban areas use English as the medium.
Students have to pick a first language (worth 25%-50% more points than other subjects), a second language (worth same as other subjects) and a third language (usually worth same as others or sometimes 50% less than others). Typical first language pick in most urban areas is either Sanskrit or English and in rural and semi urban areas it is usually Kannada. For second language it is either English or Hindi and for third language it is either Kannada or Sanskrit or Hindi. The other 3 subjects carry equal weight and the question paper is same across both mediums of instructions.
As typical for any language examination, the grading is relative and the valuators want to keep 15-20% of marks in hand to give it to the next best answer paper they will encounter (which they may never reach during their course of valuations for the year). Combine the 15-20% of marks across the 3 languages and you are looking at some serious numbers. To top this off, for reasons unknown to me, on an average students with Sanskrit as first language typically outscore those of other languages by a minimum of 15-20%.
Now to the rest of the subjects, other than Mathematics in which there cannot be relative grading there is an element of relative grading in the rest ( I agree, it is not to the same extent as languages). But when you are aiming for the top, every bit counts. Also, all of the 600000 students answer papers is not valuated by the same teacher. The evaluators vary from the best doing the 100% type to the worst who just would like to be done as soon as possible.
In the end I feel it is a random process, those who become successful are honored.
I am not a genius and neither I am in the education field but a few days of thought on this subject has made me realize the system is flawed to a large extent. I wonder how come the government hasn’t done anything to fix this. I guess they rely on the random processes so much that they believe being random is being fair.
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