The Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board on Tuesday declined to give in to demands for a re-test after students complained that they had been asked out-of-syllabus questions in Class 12th Sociology examination paper for Hindi and English mediums. The GSHSEB board has investigated that as the out-of-syllabus questions were for 15 marks, papers will be scored out of 85 marks instead of out of 100, based on which they would be proportionately awarded on 100. “There will be no re-exam,” Gujarat board chairman A J Shah said. “Two pages that were from the old syllabus was for ten marks and question number 46 of five marks was missing, thus adding up to 15 marks. As students had to suffer for 15 marks, we have decided to proportionately award on 100, whatever marks they get out of 85.”
Students who appeared for the examination on Sunday found that two entire pages of the question paper were not from the syllabus they had been taught. Over 2,000 students of English and Hindi mediums of instruction are affected. Few questions were missed as some question numbers were repeated, too. PK Lodha, a Sociology teacher from city’s Rajasthan High School said, who has been in the profession for the past 15 years, described the difficulties with the question paper. “Apart from questions that were out of syllabus, question number 3 in the English medium was missing, Section C was repeated, thus omitting the last Section E. Similarly, 2 questions from Hindi medium were missing.” It is due to these “errors” that students are demanding a re-exam.
Students are also complaining that when the papers of all mediums are usually similar, the sociology examination was different for all three mediums this time. The Gujarati medium students for the same examination did not face any difficulties, whereas their counterparts in Hindi and English medium had a harrowing time trying to answer questions covered from a syllabus that had been replaced two years ago. Embarrassed by these mistakes, the school education board told the fault lay with the printing company and said it was seeking legal help to take possible action against the printing company.
During printing the question paper, the printer didn't change one printing plate and used one of the other question papers of the same subject that was framed for students taking the exam with the old syllabus,” Shah explained. The state school education board said the printing mistake could have been caused because several sets of question papers had to be printed. For instance, 4 different examinations were conducted for over 10 lakh 10th Class students of the Gujarat board. These included students who were taking examinations under the new revised syllabus introduced in 2018, those who were repeating examinations under the old syllabus, those who had the NCERT syllabus of CBSE-based examination pattern and also those who took the NCERT curriculum of 10th class board exams but based on the GSHSEB. “With all these different categories, this year 137 question papers were framed and printed for 10th and 12th Class,” a board official said.
Sources said that since the printing company had been empanelled after due process, the GSHSEB board will impose a heavy fine on it, especially to send a clear message to other printing agencies.
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