Let Us Welcome CBSE’s Moderate Stance

Let Us Welcome CBSE’s Moderate Stance

  

It is a welcome step that the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has promised to "protect interests of the students" who had suffered due to the unusual difficulty level of the Class XII mathematics that concluded recently. Although there is no official confirmation yet, already some newspapers have quoted CBSE sources that there would be moderation in evaluation besides considering marks wherever the printing errors happened. The maths question paper was regarded as toughest by many experts and scores of students and teachers had complained to the CBSE.  The issue even came up for discussion in Parliament and the human resource development ministry had asked CBSE to address the grievances.

All this should be seen against the background that in India the 12^th Board examination is regarded as “the mother of all examinations”. It seems this year it struck a fear in millions of students and the parents from India, Saudi Arabia (it has largest Indian school in the world), the rest of the Gulf and Singapore where expat population has access to CBSE education. Some of the students were so shocked mentally that they were not willing to take their next examination.  For instance at the Examination Centre in Indira Nagar, Bangalore which I visited the common outburst was “Our dream is shattered”.

Questions were completely different from the past CBSE papers. What is worse the schools and students were not sounded about all this in advance.  The mathematics nightmare came just days after the tough physics paper. The students in general were wondering about their future prospect since the admissions to professional course largely depend on the marks they score in physics and mathematics.   

So what went wrong? Apparently the CBSE wanted a big change by stressing on application and skill based evaluation. Most of the questions were not from the books or the syllabus although they could be linked to the syllabus “somehow” to justify the high handedness. The over-zealous paper setters propped up questions which were way over the normal intelligence level. Some students even compared it to the standards of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) which general students could not have handled. IIT preparation and coaching is different ball-game and not all students can afford or have the capacity.  The application based questions make it harder for the students to score although this seems ideal for testing one’s calibre.  But again the same standards are not applied across various Boards in India as a result of which a section of student loses out. One must also keep in mind that the students need to spend more time on application based question papers. But if the question papers are lengthy the students would miss out on some questions and this is what happened in case of CBSE question papers of physics and mathematics (2015).

  

Does this mean the institutes like CBSE do not have a review team to assess the question papers - the difficulty levels - before the exams?  In case they do have, the team in question seems to have done a poor job this year. CBSE must understand that they assess general students and not just the brilliant ones. The Board cannot set up IIT level question paper and expect students to do well.  It does not have the right to spoil careers of young people.  Some did claim that everything was within syllabus. The worst part was there were too many sub-questions and alleged symbol errors.

If some in CBSE wanted to create great scholars and scientists overnight they are right in setting such question papers. However in trying this, they ended up demoralising the young kids. The irony is with all this kind of thinking, India does not rank high in terms of quality of education at global level simply because standards are not uniform across the country. The standard 12^th should be difficult but same across the country. 

Let us thank HRD ministry for being practical and taking the right step by asking CBSE to look into the matter holistically and not bask in the glory of setting the record breaking toughest questions for the students!

Gopal Sutar

Views expressed are personal. 

CBSE Makes Mockery of Mother of All Exams

CBSE Makes Mockery of Mother of All Exams

  

In India the 12^th Board examination is regarded as “the mother of all examinations”. It seems this year it has struck a fear in millions of students and the parents from India, Saudi Arabia (it has largest Indian school in the world), UAE and the rest of the Gulf. Parents of thousands of children have sought re-test or relaxed evaluation of just concluded mathematics and physics examination of class XII conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education  (CBSE).   Some of the students are so shocked mentally that they are not willing to take their next examination. “Our dream is already shattered” seemed the common outburst at the Examination Centre in Indira Nagar, Bangalore.

Questions were completely different from the past CBSE papers. What is worse the schools and students were not sounded about all this in advance.  The mathematics nightmare came just days after the tough physics paper.  Now these children are wondering about their future prospect since the admissions to professional course largely depend on the marks they score in physics and mathematics.   

So what went wrong? Apparently the CBSE wanted a big change by stressing on application and skill based evaluation. Most of the questions were not from the books or the syllabus although they could be linked to the syllabus “somehow” to justify the high handedness. The over-zealous paper setters propped up questions which were way over the normal intelligence level. Some students even compared it to the standards of Indian Institute of Technology  (IIT) which general students could not have handled. IIT preparation and coaching is different ball-game and not all students can afford or have the capacity.  The application based questions make it harder for the students to score although this seems ideal for testing one’s caliber.  But again the same standards are not applied across various Boards in India as a result of which a section of student loses out. One must also keep in mind that the students need to spend more time on application based question papers. But if the question papers are lengthy the students would miss out on some questions and this is what happened in case of physics and mathematics 2015.

  

Does this mean the institutes like CBSE do not have a review team to assess the question papers - the difficulty levels - before the exams?  In case they do have, the team in question seems to have done a poor job this year. CBSE must understand that they assess general students and not just the brilliant ones. The Board cannot set up IIT level question paper and expect students to do well.  It does not have the right to spoil the careers of young people. Now they will explain saying everything was within syllabus. The fact is even experts have given statements that mathematics and physics were too difficult, too lengthy this year. The worst part was there were too many sub-questions and alleged symbol errors. What does CBSE intend? Create great scholars and scientists overnight? In fact they have demoralized the young kids. The irony is with all this kind of thinking, India does not rank high in terms of quality of education at global level simply because standards are not uniform across the country. The standard 12^th should be difficult or same across the country.  The HRD Minister, Ms Smriti Irani must take CBSE to task for this lop-sided approach in setting the crucial standard 12 papers for 2015. 

Gopal Sutar

Views expressed are personal.