Kozhikode, May 13 (IANS) Former Kerala education minister and opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) leader T.M. Jacob Tuesday here accused the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government of using liberal valuation norms to push up the pass percentage in the Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) examination. The SSLC results, announced Tuesday, created an all-time record in the state with 92.09 percent of students, numbering 415,747, clearing the class 10 board examination.

Jacob said the record-breaking result was a cruel joke perpetrated on the people by Education Minister M.A. Baby, who wanted to show that the government was working efficiently in the education field.

“The means used by the government to improve the pass percentage is highly deplorable,” Jacob said, demanding the resignation of the minister.

The government through the district education officers had instructed headmasters to give full marks to class 10 students in the continuous evaluation process carried out in schools. The marks gained in this evaluation are also counted in the final score for each subject in the SSLC examination.

Citing another example of the liberal valuation adopted, Jacob said, for Malayalam (mother toungue) language paper, teachers were asked to give two marks if a student attempted to answer a question. The paper had eight questions with a total value of 40 marks.