CBSE takes note of tough maths paper

A day after students and teachers claimed that the Class XII board maths paper was “very tough”, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) moved in to take stock of the difficulty level.

The board held a meeting on Thursday with principals of some Delhi-based schools to understand what went wrong.

“Students need not worry. They should focus on the rest of the papers. If there was anything wrong with the questions, the board will definitely look into it, keeping the best interest of the students in mind,” a CBSE official told Deccan Herald.

 The marking scheme is finalised on the basis of the feedback received from schools, teachers and other stakeholders, including students, the official said.

“There is a foolproof mechanism for finalising the marking scheme for each paper. It is a very democratic exercise. While the schools send their feedback within 24 hours of every paper, the board also collects feedback from other stakeholders. The marking scheme is finalised only on the basis of the feedback,” the official added.

Questions in the mathematics paper left a large number of students disappointed and concerned on Wednesday as they found them to be “very difficult”. Several students claimed that they could not even try to answer many questions.

Teachers observed that the pattern was different. More than 50 per cent of the questions required higher order thinking skills (Hots) which should have been limited to 25-30 per cent.

“The questions were actually tough in the sense that they were more application based. The questions were good for those who were above average but difficult for others as they required a student to have much higher order thinking,” Tagore International School Principal Madhulika Sen told Deccan Herald.

Students are advised to build their concepts through National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) books. “But, more than 50 per cent of the questions in the mathematics paper were beyond the level of the NCERT books. They were much different from even the sample question papers that the schools were supplied before the examination,” Sen said.

The CBSE should consider “sympathetic marking” in the paper, she added.
Earlier in the day, the issue was raised in the Lok Sabha by senior Congress leader K V Thomas during Zero Hour.

“This is something connected with the future of hundreds and hundreds of youngsters. The question papers are set by experienced teachers. They should not put tough questions. Even the average students should come out of the examination successfully. It is a serious matter. So I request the government to take care of it,” Thomas said.  While the CBSE may consider giving relaxation in marking, it may also conduct another examination for the maths paper to enable students to improve their score, sources in the Human Resource Development Ministry said. Many teachers, however, felt that relaxation in marking would not benefit those students who leave the paper blank as they could not even attempt to solve questions.