SSC Science papers: Minor mistakes to cost students major marks

At a meeting of school moderators held in Pune on Friday, examiners were informed about the new evaluation policy for Science papers that will come into effect from this year. A few examiners who attended the meet said they were instructed to deduct marks even for ‘minor errors’.

For instance, students appearing for Science-I exam will have to ‘fill in the blanks’ along with numerical (1, 2, 3 or 4) or alphabetical (a, b, c or d) option code before the correct answer. The new evaluation policy is applicable only for Senior Secondary Certificate (SSC) students.

“If students fail to write the option code, marks will be deducted even if the main answer is correct,” said an examiner.

Similarly, while answering a question on periodic table, students who write ‘methane’ or ‘ethane’ instead of ‘methyl alcohol’ and ‘ethyl alcohol’ will not get marks.

“Even the senior-most teachers feel the new policy is harsh. This year, SSC students are writing exams as per new syllabus and paper pattern. Such stringent evaluation point can bring down marks for a lot of students,” said a teacher from a school in central Mumbai.

In addition, several teachers complained about minor errors in the question papers.

Apeksha Patil, a student from Thane, said, “If the board decides to be this stringent while checking answer sheets, without considering that it is the first year for new syllabus and paper pattern, it will affect students negatively.”

Rohini Pradhan, a parent from Andheri, said the board needs to consider academically weak students before taking such decisions.

“Many students find Maths and Science tough. Also, many fail in these two subjects. The board must think twice,” she added.

Ashok Bhosale, secretary of the state board, said, “Teachers are given a model answer paper using which they evaluate answer sheets. There is no such thing as a ‘strict evaluation’. Rules for evaluation are all given in writing.”

First Published: Mar 19, 2019 11:39 IST