E-Paper
Calling Kipling an Aussie novelist in exam was a mistake, admits MP govt
The Madhya Pradesh government admitted in the House on Wednesday that Rudyard Kipling was referred as ‘Australian novelist’ in English question paper of Class 12 in 2015.
The Madhya Pradesh government admitted in the House on Wednesday that Rudyard Kipling was referred as ‘Australian novelist’ in English question paper of Class 12 in 2015.
The government’s admission came nearly three months after the 150th birth anniversary celebrations of Kipling, who wrote Jungle Book in the backdrop of state’s Pench forests.
In a written reply to a question of nominated legislator Loren B Lobo, education minister Paras Chandra Jain admitted the mistake. Lobo said many errors crept into the MP Board’s English question papers of Class 10 and 12 in 2015 and the students got less marks.
She wanted to know who was responsible for such mistakes and what action was taken against those responsible for it. The minister said hand-written question papers were sent to the printer to ensure secrecy.
“The printer misread some parts of the hand-written papers due to which errors appeared in the question paper. The corrected paper was sent to the evaluators. So the marks of the students were not affected. Nobody is responsible for such errors, so there is no question of taking action against any one,” the minister said in his reply.
In the question paper of Class 12, the correction for the line ten reads: “to Rudyard Kipling an Australian novel writer ko Rudyard Kipling, a British novelist pada jaye (to Rudyard Kipling, an Australian novel writer be read as Rudyard Kipling, a British novelist).”
The correction for the line 23 in the same paper reads: “Mogli should be read Mowgli because this is the spelling used by Kipling.”
HT had reported in March last year about the mistakes in the question paper of English (general) meant for the Hindi medium students of Class 12.
According to that report, the question paper contained numerous grammatical and factual errors, besides highlighting the ‘achievements’ of a former Congress minister and spelling of Rudyard Kipling as ‘Rudyard Kuplung’.
On December 30, literary connoisseurs celebrated the 150th anniversary of Kipling, who was born on the same day in 1865 in Mumbai.
THE ISSUE
Hindustan Times had reported in March last year about the mistakes in the question paper of English (general) meant for the Hindi medium students of Class 12
According to that report, the question paper contained grammatical and factual errors, besides highlighting the ‘achievements’ of a former Congress minister and spelling of Rudyard Kipling as ‘Rudyard Kuplung’
The minister’s reply read: “The printer misread some parts of the hand-written papers due to which errors appeared in the question paper. The corrected paper was sent to the evaluators. So the marks of the students were not affected”.
