Feb. 24.TT: Madhyamik got off to a messy start today with some examinees ready to write their Hindi first-language paper receiving the Urdu question paper instead.
An hour was lost trying to figure out what to do. When the students, a group of 10 at the Kaliganj High School centre of Ramganj in North Dinajpur, were finally given the Hindi question paper, it turned out to be the one based on the combined syllabi and meant for candidates repeating the test. But the examinees were allegedly forced to write the wrong paper and complete it in the remaining two hours.
“First we were given Urdu question papers. When it was changed and we hurried to write finish the exams, we realised after another half an hour that the Hindi question paper was meant for external candidates (those who are not regular students) and not for us,” Puja Gupta, one of the examinees, said.
“When we told the invigilators again, they said we have to answer the question paper meant for external candidates and did not change it.”
Another student, Simran Gupta, said no extra time had been provided though they had been forced to sit idle for the first one hour as Hindi question papers had not arrived. “We had to submit the incomplete answer scripts.”
Ramganj centre in-charge Aparna Sur told journalists later: “It (distribution of Urdu papers) was a small problem and the allegation that the mistake was corrected only after one-and-a-half hours is untrue. It didn’t take long to sort out the problem. I cannot comment on the issue that question papers for external candidates were given out.”
Some examinees at South Point High School in Calcutta were forced to write their Urdu exam twice over after the invigilators realised they had received the wrong set of question papers.
Nilufer Khatoon of Monu Memorial Institution, an Urdu-medium school in Topsia, stepped out of her examination centre at South Point well past 6pm looking weary after the day’s ordeal. “I completed answering the Urdu question paper given to me in the scheduled time, only to realise that some of my classmates had received a different paper,” she recounted to The Telegraph. “Then we were asked to write the correct paper all over again.”
Fellow examinee Shaheen stood next to her sobbing.
The error took long to be detected because the subject was the same, only the paper was different. Nilufer and nine other examinees had been given the Urdu question paper meant for candidates repeating the exam. This paper was based on the syllabi for classes IX and X, as was the rule until 2011. From this year onwards, Madhyamik examinees are required to study only the Class X syllabus for the test.
None of the students could immediately detect they had been given the wrong paper because the questions looked familiar. “We answered some of the questions from memory, having studied those chapters in Class IX,” a student said.
Similar confusion was reported in examination centres elsewhere too.
At Salkia Vidyapeeth in Howrah, 24 students were given the Hindi first language paper meant for candidates repeating the exam. Some of them reported the error immediately, but were told to answer the question paper given to them.
After the final bell, the students and their guardians went to Golabari police station to lodge a complaint against the school.
Kashipur Boys’ School in Budge Budge, South 24-Parganas district, and Balarampur Phulchand Uchcha Vidyalaya in Purulia also witnessed a mix-up.
In Calcutta, board president Chaitali Dutta apologised for the mistakes and admitted that at least 100 students across the state had been affected. “We still do not know what to do with the students who were not given the correct question papers even after the mix-up was detected. We will have to find a way to solve the problem. Aami kshama chaichhi (I seek forgiveness),” she said.
Complaints continued to pour in from various centres till late on Friday, Dutta confirmed.
The Madhyamik board had this year introduced colour coding of question-paper packets to ensure such mistakes did not occur. The first day’s confusion means the move has bombed.
An official said the board had failed to train examination officials properly after the changes were made. “Otherwise, how can teachers of so many schools make the same mistake?” he wondered.
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