Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday said it would scrap the marks system in the class 10 board exams and implement a grading system in its place.

"The grading system for the class 10 board exams will come into effect from the 2010-11 academic session," Chief Minister Mayawati told reporters at a press conference here.

As per the proposed grading system, from the next academic session marksheets would not indicate marks obtained by students, but only grades from A to D, depending upon their performance, officials said.

Mayawati also announced that from now on students who clear five of the total six subjects would also be declared to have passed in the exams.

These decisions are intended to improve the education system, the chief minister said.

According to officials, a total of 3,337,679 candidates registered for the UP board class 10 exams this year, out of which 3,122,679 candidates appeared in the exams.

In the wake of complaints that private schools affiliated to the Indian Council of Secondary (ICSE) and CBSE were charging exorbitant fee from students, Mayawati said it has decided to constitute a district level committee to review the fee structure of these schools.

"The schools will have to implement the fee structure recommended by the district committee that would be headed by district magistrate. In case any school is not satisfied with the committee's recommendation, it can approach the divisional commissioner," she said.

However, the government has not made mandatory for the minority institutions to act as per the recommendations of the district level committee. IANS