In Mumbai: Teachers want gap between 3 SSC papers

The three papers — science, history-civics and geography-economics — are scheduled from March 20 to 22

School teachers have demanded changing the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) exam timetable to keep a day’s gap between social studies and science papers so that students get time to revise. On Tuesday, the Mumbai Teachers’ Parishad wrote to the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education to make changes to the timetable released on Saturday.

Teachers complained that back-to-back papers can take a toll on the students. The SSC exam begins on March 7. (Rep pic/HT file photo)

The SSC exam begins on March 7. The three papers — science, history-civics and geography-economics — are scheduled from March 20 to 22.

Teachers complained that back-to-back papers can take a toll on the students. “All three papers are content heavy. They should be set a day apart from each other so that students get time to refresh their minds before the next paper,” said Anil Bornare, secretary of the teachers’ association.

The teachers said that for the last few years, the board has been keeping gaps between papers so that students don’t get stressed during exams. “Usually, the board keeps a day’s gap between two papers. So, we were surprised when it didn’t do so this year,” said Bornare.

However, the board said they couldn’t keep too many gaps between papers as they want the exams to wrap up early. The exam is spread out over a month and a half. “The SSC exam is already delayed by a week because of elections in the state. We have to finish them early so that results can be announced on time,” said Gangadhar Mhamane, chairperson of the board. “Still, we will think about the teachers’ demands.”

Mhamane said that they have kept gaps before tough subjects such as math and science. “Each of the social studies theory paper carries only 40 marks so it will not be a burden on students,” he added.