Students appearing for the Plus Two higher secondary English examination on Saturday were left worried and upset by the change in examination paper pattern.
The question paper did not adhere to the set pattern that students had been witnessing for a few years now, nor the model question paper pattern published by the government, it was alleged.
Teachers alleged that some of the questions were taken directly from a question bank for the vocational higher secondary education section.
Students were trained by teachers in functional English with questions based on letter writing, email, blurb writing, reading bio-data, giving live TV report, interviews, character sketch, and the like, but such questions were few and far in between. Instead, a good number of questions were textual, a pattern that was no longer adopted in the State.
A question on live TV report required students to write about a courtroom scenario. However, it begged the question of how many students would be familiar with courtroom proceedings.
In a question on poetry, the lines of the poem were printed together as if it were prose, it was alleged.
Even the grammar questions lacked directions on what the students were to do.
Students, except for the high-performing ones, found the question paper tough and this put a damper on their morale. Abandoning accepted practices to put students through the wringer was irresponsible, teachers’ organisations such as the Kerala Higher Secondary Teachers’ Union and the Aided Higher Secondary Teachers’ Association said in statements here on Saturday.
Such question papers did not adhere to the blueprint issued by the higher secondary department to the question paper setters. There was a need to determine to what extent was the paper based on questions from the question bank, they said.
The paper pattern also did not conform to the question set as per directions given during cluster training for higher secondary and VHSE teachers on setting question papers and uploading them in February, a teacher pointed out. This led to apprehension that the question paper was set before the pool of questions was readied at the cluster training.
