Separate question paper may lead to confusion: teachers

The decision of the Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board (KSEEB) to provide the question paper and answer booklet separately in this year’s SSLC exam has caused anxiety among high school teachers.

“In a hurry, the students may write the wrong question number against their answers or forget to write numbers for sub-questions. They may stand to lose marks for such errors,” said the headmaster of a private school in Bengaluru.

While the system of providing the question paper separately did exist earlier, he said providing a combined booklet was better for Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE). “In the CCE system, students are required to write specific answers. The space provided in the booklet used to be just right. Now they may write long answers, unnecessarily,” he added.

This may result in students losing precious time, said Shashi Kumar D, general secretary of Associated Managements of Private Unaided English Medium School in Karnataka (KAMS). “There should have been a consultation with teachers and headmasters before the decision was taken. A committee should have been formed to see whether the change had merit,” Kumar said.

While announcing the move, KSEEB said students will benefit because they would be able to carry the question paper back with them for reference.

Teachers are also worried that it will make the evaluation process complicated and time-consuming. “The student can attempt questions in any order which means the evaluator will have to repeatedly look through the sheets for the matching answer. This may be time-consuming,” said a science teacher from Koppal taluk. Earlier, students could write only one answer for one question in the space provided.

With the booklet, students are likely to attempt the same question more than once, making the task of evaluation difficult, he said. A senior official from the Board dismissed the concerns, saying it was a minor change and students will not face problems.