Look who needs to go back to school

Where is ‘definition’ spelt as ‘defenation’, ‘special’ as ‘speical’, and ‘guidance’ as ‘guidence’?

Where is ‘definition’ spelt as ‘defenation’, ‘special’ as ‘speical’, and ‘guidance’ as ‘guidence’?

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In the English version of the 11-page bi-lingual information booklet provided by the state’s School Education Department to students for online admissions to junior colleges. The booklet has 32 spelling mistakes and grammatical and printing errors.

The word ‘admissions’ is spelt in two ways. You can take your pick from ‘addmissions’ and ‘adimssion’.

Sentences like ‘submit there admission form’, ‘it is mandatory for every students’, ‘as per first-nearest, second-nearest and so on’ are only some of the grammatical gems.

The science, arts and commerce streams have been divided into categories of general and “bifocal”. They have used “bifocal” to indicate the category under which one can opt for a combination of subjects with the latter used in three different ways—“bi-focal”, “Bifocal” and the boring “bifocal”.

The 3.4 lakh students appearing for Class 10 exams in Mumbai are paying Rs 150 to buy this booklet with the admission form. Students can download the 58-pager from the government’s website, which will cost about Rs 250 if they were to print it.

The state uploaded the booklet online on March 28 and distributed them on April 5, but it doesn’t seem to know about these bloopers.

“We have taken a lot of effort since December to put this together. We had engaged professors to get the language right,” said R.R. Bhise, deputy director of education for Mumbai region. He is confident that despite these errors, students will follow the instructions well.

Students and parents, however, feel the mistakes are embarrassing. “We have had several complaints coming in from parents and students on the mistakes and disjointed sentences that make no sense,” said Arundhati Chavan, president of the Parent-Teacher Association United Forum. “This is not something we expect from the School Education Department. It needs to be rectified and simplified.”