Class 12 boards begin with answers in English question paper

A student complained, ‘Not only did he lose time and six marks, my concentration, too, was impaired for the rest of the questions.’

Mumbai: The Maharashtra state board of secondary & higher secondary education (MSBSHSE)’s Class 12 examination started on Tuesday with an error in the English question paper. In one section carrying six marks, instead of questions, model answers meant for the paper correctors were printed on the question paper, creating confusion in the minds of students. A total of 14,57,293 students across the state appeared for the examination.

Mumbai, India - February 21, 2023: Students appearing for 12th Class Board Exam at an examination centre at Maharashtra College, at Nagpada, as HSC Board examinations start today across the State, in Mumbai, India, on Tuesday, February 21, 2023. (Photo by Bhushan Koyande/HT Photo) (HT PHOTO)

A student from a Central Mumbai examination centre said that he lost 15 valuable minutes because of the error. “When we approached the supervisor about the mistake, he was clueless. He contacted the centre’s principal but received no response. Not only did I lose time and six marks, my concentration, too, was impaired for the rest of the questions.”

A teacher told HT that the board had concentrated so much on the ‘copy-free’ campaign that it had neglected the question papers and their planning. “The board’s experts should also think about the length of the question paper,” he said. “The paper this year has 16 pages of A4 size. This is impossible to read in 10 minutes.”

Shrikant Shetty, a parent, said that the board ought to give six marks gratis to all students on account of the blunder in the paper. “In addition, the paper setters, who are responsible for the final proofreading, should be held accountable and penalised,” he said.

The state board of education tried to defend itself by blaming the teachers’ boycott for its inability to rectify the error. “Moderators sit in the board office when the exam starts and if there are any errors in the question papers, they are corrected and communicated to all exam centres,” said Anuradha Oak, secretary, MSBSHSE.

“For the English paper, a meeting was organised with the joint subject expert and the chief regulator of all departmental boards. But the meeting could not take place due to the teachers’ boycott. We will call for a meeting again, and students will be given due justice.”

Mukund Andhalkar, conveyer of the Maharashtra State Federation of the Junior College Teachers Organisation (MSFJCTO) corroborated Oak’s statement.

“Yes, the meeting of the chief moderator of English scheduled on Tuesday could not be held,” he said. “All the moderators submitted a letter to the secretary of the board, as they were participating in the boycott. Vis-à-vis our demands, we have demanded that the education minister look into them as early as possible and fulfil them.”

Photocopy centre flouts rule, stays open during exam

To make the exams ‘copy-free’, the board had instructed all photocopy centres within 100 meters of examination centres to remain closed. Despite this, a photocopy centre in Dharavi, near Dr Ambedkar Vidyalaya & Junior College, was open during the exam hours. When parents asked the shop owner why his shop was open, he said he had not received any message from any authority on the subject.