Saturday, March 14, 2015

CBSE cold to online plea over ‘tough’ physics paper

Unhappy with a 'tough' std XII CBSE physics question paper, over 3,000 people have signed an online petition asking for leniency in marking. Since the marks are clubbed along with the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) for engineering college admissions, it is vital students have good marks in this subject. While the opinion over the difficulty level of the physics exam is divided, it is pretty much clear that CBSE won't be entertaining this online petition. 

A source in the central board said there are multiple inbuilt systems of checks and balances, hence it is unlikely that the online petition will be able to make any impact. The source said, "CBSE has a very democratic set-up and all our systems are in place to ensure that students do not suffer in any way. For every board exam paper schools are asked to send an 'observation schedule', which is a report of any issues they noticed in the paper. If any, this is taken up and a decision is taken." 

The official further added that questions papers are vetted by academic experts to ensure that they fit the norms of the board's blueprint. "What is the locus standi of this online petition? There are set procedures to appeal to the board, which are in place since a long time," the official said. 

The online petition has come up on the website . At the time of going to press 3,537 people had 'signed' it. The idea is to get the names of petitioners mentioned online and take a printout so that it can be given to the decision making authority. This particular petition was started by an anonymous person, yet it continues to gather support. 

While it is not known if any students from Nagpur signed the petition, some students from Nagpur agreed that it was indeed a tough paper to crack. 

Aatima Bhatia, a student, said, "Everything in the paper was out of context. We are taught how to manage our time so that a 3 mark question get maximum 5 minutes, but it took almost 15 minutes of our time. I started from section D but it took almost 2 hours of my time. I feel that this petition is good. What I don't understand is the logic of how the board will mark us leniently when we haven't written much, since we did not understand the questions or the paper was lengthy. However, I do want someone to save us somehow." 

Another student, Aman Agarawal, said, "The paper was very tricky and lengthy. Marks weren't distributed properly. I mean the questions which should have been of 1 or 2 marks were for 3 or more marks, and a 3 mark question was made into a 5 mark question. The questions were difficult and I also felt that the marks distribution of chapters was exchanged." 

A CBSE teacher said, "Students usually find the physics-math-chemistry-biology group tough to crack. It is natural for them to feel that the paper was lengthy but ultimately it all depends on your point of view."
Source : TOI

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