In recognition of the printing discrepancies in the question paper for the higher secondary certificate board (Class 12) exams, the state board officials have decided to reconsider and award the bonus marks to only those students who have attempted to answer the question.
The said question paper was distributed to the students of Class 12 during the board examination for chemistry on February 28. These question papers were found to have four printing errors, which as per rule, allowed the students a grace of seven marks.
Earlier in the day, on Tuesday, Shakuntala Kale, chairman of MSBSHSE said that they would be seeking a second opinion before taking a decision. Later, the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE)authorities decided to take the step in favour of the students.
“At the end of the day, we do not want to cause any harm to the career of the students. And so, despite of the errors being extremely minor, we have decided to give them the bonus marks. However, only those students who had attempted the question will be given the marks. Those who re-wrote the question on the answer sheet or left it blank will not be considered for this,” said Kale.During this period, the junior college teachers have been on strike, and the decision to recommend the bonus seven marks to students, was taken during a meeting by the chief moderators, who are responsible for deciding the model answers.
While in question 6 (4), the chemical equation asked was out of the syllabus, in question 8 (b), the isocyanide equation was in a wrong pattern. For these two questions, students have been recommended to get, two and one bonus marks, respectively.
{{/usCountry}}While in question 6 (4), the chemical equation asked was out of the syllabus, in question 8 (b), the isocyanide equation was in a wrong pattern. For these two questions, students have been recommended to get, two and one bonus marks, respectively.
{{/usCountry}}Further, question 2 (2) had a minor misprinting, whereby it read ‘Give two uses...’ instead of ‘give its two uses’ (with respect to thermodynamics). Also, in question 3 (4), students were asked to ‘Calculate internal energy’ instead of ‘Calculate change in internal energy’.
“Although the errors might seem to be minor, the implications are major as they change the entire meaning of the question. So, students deserve to get the bonus marks according to the marking rules,” said Anil Deshmukh, general secretary of the Maharashtra Federation of Junior College Teachers' Organisation.