ON A SIGNATURE SPREE
* A signature campaign by the parents will be handed over to the Chairman of the GBSHS
* The parents have sought at least 25 marks to every student who answered the Science paper
* The parents have said that it is the right of the hardworking student to get what they deserve
* The level was such that even bright students couldn’t understand, the parents complained
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WHO IS RESPONSIBLE?
Excerpts of the letter to Board Chairman ...
* Not all students receive the best coaching from expensive tuition classes
* What will be the mental state of those students (socially and economically backward classes)?
* Why put a student’s career at stake because of some immediate action was taken by the board?
* Who is to be blamed if any student takes an extreme step?
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PANAJI: Parents of students who answered the “unusually tough” SSC science paper are demanding that their wards be allocated “at least 25 marks” to all those who attempted the question paper.
Parents have been clamouring ever since it emerged that the question paper had more than its fair share of ‘difficult’ and ‘application-type’ questions for leniency from the board.
The affected parents have begun a signature campaign, which will be handed over to the Chairman of the Goa Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education next week.
“With due respect to the Board of Education, we request you to give at least 25 marks to every student who has answered the April 2018 Science paper. The students deserve these many marks because a lot of weight of the question paper was contentious and we feel it is the right of the hardworking student to get what they deserve,” the letter which will be forwarded to the Goa Board reads.
The parents pointed out that a majority of teachers themselves “did not know about the difficulty level, question type distribution, [and] change in pattern due to which they did not train the students as required.”
“The preliminary examination question paper was very simple due to which the April 2018 paper became unpredictable. Most of the questions were applicative which were not supposed to be more than six marks. To make things worse the level was such that even bright students couldn’t understand,” the parents complained.
Focus has shifted on the role of the Board, the heads of institutions as well as the teachers as the Board’s communication to heads of all schools about the change in difficulty level, question type distribution and change in pattern, back in September last year did not percolate to the teachers and students.
Parents pointed out that the communication sent by the Board and the model question paper uploaded on the Board’s website “was merely a design of question paper. It did not give the breakdown of the marks, etc.”
To make matters worse, the preliminary paper did not follow the new level of difficulty that was to be expected.
“We do agree that level of education in Goa needs to be increased, but how will increasing the difficulty level without proper training help in improving the quality of education?” the parents asked.
“Not all students receive the best coaching from expensive tuition classes. There are students who come from socially and economically backward classes, what will be the mental state of those students? Why put a student’s career at stake because of some immediate action was taken by the board? Who is to be blamed if any student takes an extreme step? Who is responsible for an unforeseen misfortune?” the letter reads.
They also questioned why the science subject was targeted.
“Increasing the Science paper difficulty won’t help in improving the attributes of education. Not all students choose Science stream as their career option. If a student is unable to choose the career option of their choice then who is to be blamed? We condemn the decision given by the scrutiny committee,” the parents have said.
