SSLC preparatory examinations turn perfunctory exercise

 SSLC students in the State faced a strange situation during their preparatory examination held on Tuesday. The students who were in the exam hall to write the Science exam had a surprise awaiting them in the question paper.

While the first page of the paper mentioned details of the science exam, pages two, three and four contained questions of the Social Science paper, scheduled for Wednesday.

There are four series of papers and 25 per cent of the students got the ‘B’ series of paper, which had the blooper. The preparatory exams are conducted by the Head Masters’ Association.

Shashi Kumar, President of the Private School Managements’ Federation, said preparatory exams had become a money-spinning venture with no seriousness of purpose.

He said papers of most of the preparatory question papers were available in the photocopy shops prior to the exam, adding that these exams were not conducted in a systematic manner.

The numerous teachers’ associations that conduct preparatory exams have turned this into a business venture by charging exam fees from schools. The students write at least five such exams before the final exam. With thousands of students across the State writing the exam multiple times, it yields the associations good profit, Kumar said.

The Department of Public Instruction (DPI) has issued a circular instructing schools not to conduct more than two preparatory exams. The department has asked the schools to conduct the preparatory exams themselves.

However, this is not followed by a majority of the schools. A few school principals told Deccan Herald that most of the schools conduct at least five preparatory exams: Three district-level exams and one State-level exam. Apart from these, some of the schools tie up with private tutorials to conduct exams.

Reacting to Tuesday’s incident, Karnataka State Secondary Education Examination Board director D Venkateshaiah said the preparatory exam had no connection with the Board.

“It is entirely conducted by the associations. The Board has nothing to do with this State-level exam,” he said.

Since this exam is meant only for revision purposes, schools did not take Tuesday’s incident seriously. The principal of a State Board school in Rajajinagar told Deccan Herald that the teachers replaced the faulty paper with the correct one after realising the error. This incident will not have any impact on Wednesday’s exam, the principal said. 

DPI commissioner Umashankar told Deccan Herald that the practice of multiple preparatory exams had come to his notice.

“We will initiate disciplinary action against schools that burden students with so many exams,” he said. He advised the schools to stick to school-level exams for revision, so that the teachers too get a hang of setting the question paper. What is worse is that the students do not even get to know the results of the preparatory exams as the teachers are overburdened with valuation of exams held one after the other.