New SSC exam pattern leads to poor show?

VIJAYAWADA: The change in the pattern of SSC examinations from 11 papers to seven and exclusion of objective questions seem to have resulted in the lowest ever pass percentage in the past two decades. Leaders of teachers and student unions and parents associations opined that students had to write for 100 marks in three hours with a grace time of 15 minutes as against two-and-a-half hours for 50 marks earlier with the change in the exam pattern.

Moreover, objective questions for 15 marks in the exam paper were now removed. Though Education Minister Botcha Satyanarayana maintained that Covid-19 was the reason for the decline in pass percentage in the SSC exams, the leaders attributed it to several causes. 

As many as 2,01, 627 students failed to clear the SSC exams in the State. A teacher said a few subheadings were removed from syllabus instead of reducing chapters. As a result, teachers and students felt stressed to complete the syllabus in time. I Sudha, a senior government teacher in Mathematics from Nellore district, stated that students forgot Mathematics during the pandemic. Hence, they started teaching the subject from basics, which resulted in poor pass percentage. 

She opined that if the  Mathematics examination was conducted in two papers like science, the pass percentage in the SSC exams would have been better.  K Vasantha Kumari,  a parent from Guntur,  stated that her son Sunjan Roy failed in Science by getting only one mark less than the pass marks. She appealed to the State government to allot grace marks for the benefit of students who failed to clear the exams with a small margin.

Sk Sanaullah said his son Sk Wasim Fakheer Ahmed failed in Science as he got 2 marks less than the pass marks. He lamented that his son faced several health issues during the Covid pandemic and it impacted his studies and urged the government to allot grace marks to enable him pass SSC. APPSA treasurer Mekala Ravindrababu said the government should change the exam pattern and syllabus for the supplementary exams as the time is very less.

Possible Reasons

AP Private Schools Association State president K Chandrasekhar Rao said the government should consider the mental efficiency of students before changing the examination pattern 

The total number of working days in the academic year 2021-22 came down to 175 from 225-230 days, which resulted in lack of adequate preparation time 

Though the government decreased the syllabus to compensate the loss of time, it was said to be too less
Seven exams were conducted in seven days instead of 11 examinations in 11 days excluding holidays, putting more pressure on students

Each subject paper examination was conducted for 100 marks instead of 50 marks earlier with the reduction in number of  papers from 11 to seven 

The duration of examination was three hours for 100 marks paper against the earlier practice of two-and-a-half hours for 50 marks, besides an additional 15 minutes to read the question paper .

Earlier the paper contained 14 questions for 35 marks with four essay type questions along with choice in three sections. They had to answer them in 2 hours and 30 bits without choice for 15 marks in another 30 minutes

Now, the paper contained 33 questions with only choice of five questions with 8 marks each in section IV. There was no choice in other three sections of question paper
Speaking TNIE, a Zilla Parishad High School student of Ramannagudem in Krishna district, who failed in Mathematics, lamented that the time was not sufficient to answer all 33 questions in just 3 hours