Credibility of Question papers

This is the month in which, almost all school going children appear in their final examinations. Many of them take school based exam but few of them appear in board examination conducted by different boards of the country. The media attention most of the time is on CBSE and ICSE board examinations because these two boards are considered having good reputation at national and international level, specially CBSE which has its presence in almost all the states of the country and now has extended itself from smaller townships to international boundaries. Also, CBSE is considered to be taking lead in innovation and implementing new things before any other board in the country.

CBSE has been advocating that the examination should not drive the students towards stress which I think all the people agree and appreciate. But making examination a stress free concept does not necessarily mean that there is no examination or they set easy question papers so that most of the children pass even if they had not studied hard or not understood the basic concepts of the subject concerned.

 I was forced to raise this issue because of the problems faced by the students who are appearing in the board examination of class XII conducted by CBSE, New Delhi. They have complaints about three subject papers i.e; physics, business studies and mathematics. The issue of mathematics paper is very recent and many teachers and schools have questioned the pattern of the paper and I tend to agree with them but have some points to put forward for the consideration of all. Is it necessary that some children must score hundred percent marks and if that is not there, will there be problems? If the question paper is set based on the syllabus already known and taught to the students the crisis does not arise. Yes I would consider the problem of the question paper being lengthy and the students are unable to attempt all questions in the given time duration. A trend has been observed in the past that all the boards are trying to increase the pass percentage of their students and in this process all legal methods are employed but how much is done to raise the standard of teaching learning in the schools. I agree that the students should be tested for what they know and not what they do not know however, that  does not mean to reduce the difficulty level to a very low level and students get disillusioned that they have learnt that subject so well while the fact is otherwise. And this trend was started by the elite board of the country. This board created a situation in which large number of students started scoring more than ninety five percent and those who got eighty percent or so found themselves nowhere and that created a situation in which the cut off percentage for admission in reputed college of the country reached to a hundred. The children who got ninety five or so were depressed that even after scoring high percentage of marks, they failed to get admission in the college of their choice. By stating this, I do not want to contradict or hurt those students and teachers who are stressed and unhappy with the pattern of the board papers about which I mentioned above. Rather I endorse the questions that they have raised but all must try to understand how and why we reached to this situation.

I think the people in the responsible position should understand that the teaching learning process is more important than the examination and the marks obtained by the children in board or school examination. If seriously paid attention to, there will be a plenty of examples where the people who did not perform well in the examinations were very successful in their life. I should not be misunderstood to denounce the sanctity of the examination system but over dependence and craziness’ of everyone for the marks obtained by the children in the examination is insurmountable. Unfortunately, in the name of reducing the stress on the students the standard of the question had been brought down in the last few years. In the process, some students started taking the examination lightly and still they could manage to get good marks in the examination and were appreciated by all.  Even the teachers were quite happy with this because they were also appreciated for something which they did not necessarily deserve but the marks scored by their children ensured that appreciation. Again I would like to clarify that the increase in the marks obtained by the children was not only due to the standard of the papers being low but also a lot of hard work put in by many students, their parents and the teachers. But we cannot deny the fact that the pattern of the question papers in the past few years had been such that all children score a good percentage.

I always say that the learning by the children is more important than anything else. I would like everyone to pay heed to the pattern of question papers of this year of CBSE class XII. Three papers I already mentioned above but what I understood that the papers of English and Chemistry were conventional and quite easy. Majority of the students were quite happy and expect to score very good marks whereas in Physics and Mathematics they are not happy at all. Now if the marks obtained by them are in accordance with the thought we have today will they be considered more intelligent in Chemistry than Physics? One thing should be ensured that the standard of the question papers should be almost the same and the students should be made aware of it because they tend to get deceived by the pattern of the previous year question papers. This concept that only two questions were from NCERT book and rest from outside should be done away with. The NCERT or any other book is a tool to understand the concepts and the subjects and not necessarily that the question papers are set from NCERT books only. Certainly, the questions should be based on the contents of NCERT books and from the syllabus prescribed by the board.  The people should avoid creating hype if the students find a question paper difficult but not out of course. Yes, we should try to assess what is learnt by the students but should not let them be misguided only on the basis of marks.

This is high time that too much reliance on the marks is done away with and all pay more attention to more effective teaching learning process in the class rooms. The students should be encouraged to be present in the schools than spending more time in coaching or tuition centres ( I think all understand this serious issue and  concern). The board should pay attention to the points raised by all but should not succumb to the pressure of those who want every student to pass though he/she may not deserve that. If no child gets full marks in some subjects, that should also not be taken as a blemish because hundred marks are the maximum somebody might get but it is not mandatory that you should get that. I take an example to elaborate on this. A physicist named Carnot proposed an engine having efficiency hundred, but till date we have reached to an efficiency of about sixty to sixty five. Hundred percent is an ideal situation and one should try to achieve it but by working hard and not bringing down the quality and standard of the engine.

In the end I would like to advise all students not to worry about the marks they would score but do their best in the papers they will appear now. I also advise them not to be distressed by the pattern of the paper and be happy with whatever they have attempted. Always have positive attitude and think that if you have not been able to do that well as expected, perhaps others would also have done equally appalling or good. I wish you all the best and pray to Almighty to bless you all with immense success in life.