Changes in SSC question papers sought

Hyderabad: Teachers and students are united in demanding that the Education department make changes in the SSC public examination question papers.

In union, they say that since the number of papers have been reduced from 11 to 6, there would be a change in the pattern of the question papers and hence more choices should be given. The total marks would be of 100. Hence the Telangana State United Teachers Federation has asked the government to provide more choices under every section of the question paper and hold the exams on every alternate day as in case of the CBSE exams.

The president and secretaries of TS UTF, K Jangaiah and Chava Ravi, respectively, said that the average and below-average students will find the new pattern of the question papers difficult. The question papers should be prepared to keep in mind the students giving their first public examinations.

The teachers said, so far, the practice was to give two papers in each subject. Thus, students should be given choices under one and two sections in the new pattern and 30 per cent choice should also be given for answering questions with 2 and 3 marks.

Similarly, in the third section of the question paper where students must write essay questions, the number of questions should be reduced from six to four. The physical and biological science examinations should be held on different days instead on the same day.

The Telangana Recognised Schools' Management Association (TRSMA), also submitted a representation to the State Education Minister Sabitha Indra Reddy on this issue.

Sheshagiri, a class X student of a private school, said: "Just hardly three months are left for the SSC Public Examination, I don't know how I am going to score. I understand this time there will be less choice and that too only for the long questions."

Arun Reddy, another Class X student said, "Less choice means we will be left with fewer options to answer scoring good marks. It will be disadvantageous for us."

Bhaskar Rathod, a Biology Teacher, said earlier there were ample choices in the question papers. Now, it is a single paper. Earlier, if a student scored less marks in part 1, they had the chance to score good marks in part two. But now with single paper, this is not possible. The Education department had released a model question paper but still there is a lot of confusion among teachers and students," he added.