I am ambivalent regarding this decision by the government. In the first place, the state board's exam is quite unscientific and the evaluation methods are always fraut with problems. Secondly, this decision is not going to bring any level playing. It is quite true that students from rural areas will quite benefit from this. However, there is a big chance that deserving students will not also get into their desired group/college. Further, there is not gradation for the CBSE/ICE etc boards which are much tougher than the state board. Only solution I can see is to make the exams more problem oriented and objective. Allocating more funds for proper and accurate evaluation will go a long way. Also, a transparent evaluation system may help to avoid much of the problems. One way to do is to, either provide a copy of the evaluated answer sheets to students or to provide some kind of access to the corrected answer sheets. If this would seem to be a problem, then a double blind method of correction can be instituted. Whatever be the means, the sad fact is education has become so corrupted that students are going to feel pinch which ever way.