Adil Lateef
Srinagar, Nov 3: Amid demands for postponement of annual board examinations in the wake of the prolonged unrest in Kashmir, Board of School Education (BOSE), today said that they would go ahead with the exams as per schedule but decided that students would have to only attempt 50 per cent of the total questions.
Chairman BOSE, Professor Zahoor Ahmad Chatt told a press conference here that examinations have already been postponed by a month and now they are scheduled to begin from November 14.
Professor Chatt said the dates have been chosen on a number of reasons but the main reason is to save the academic career of the students. He said the exams cannot be postponed further to March session as the students have to prepare for the competitive examinations.
He said the Board has also approached the security apparatus of the State for conducting hassle-free examinations. He said the question papers have been redesigned to provide 50 per cent relaxation to the candidates appearing in class 10 and class 12 examinations. “The decision was taken keeping in view the interests of the students as well as the difficulties which they face, he said.
“Normally our examination takes place in October but due to prevailing situation here we had to postpone these exams and we announced dates for examinations on November 14 and 15. These dates were notified for various reasons,” he said, adding that first of all the most important reason is to save the academic career of the students.
Professor Chatt said in order to save the time of children from getting wasted they decided to postpone exams in October and hold them by the end of November this year. “Normally our examination schedule is from October 8. We start matriculation exams from October 8 and the secondary exams from second week of the October. What was in our mind is that we won’t allow playing with the career of students and not to create any problem in the career of students,” he said.
The Chairman said the children get an advantage if examinations are held in November month. “The biggest advantage is for those who have to sit in competitive examinations. Normally, the competitive examinations occur in the month of May or June all across the country. If the examinations are postponed till March then the students remain busy in preparations of annual examinations,” he said.
Stating that November month is the best time for students’ examinations, the BOSE Chairman said these exams are not limited to only cities. “There are areas which are completely cut-off during winters. The areas like Gurez, Tanghdar, Keran, Machil remain cut-off for six months due to snow and conducting exam there is not only difficult but also impossible,” he added.
He said earlier they had designed question papers as per normal pattern ‘but then we thought and desired and redesigned the paper’.
“The BOSE Chairman said the question papers have been redesigned to provide relaxation to the candidates appearing in the class 10 and class 12 examinations.
Giving details, Professor Chatt said in some subjects, there are five long-answer-type questions, while in others, there are only four, and there is internal choice in all the questions which makes it 10 questions in all. “We are now asking the students to attempt any five questions in total from 10. It becomes an open choice for such section of the question paper. These 10 questions become independent questions and students can attempt any five out of them, which means only 50 per cent of those questions,” he said.
Similarly, he said: “In the second section – short-answer-type-questions – where all the eight or 10 questions had to be attempted, we are now providing 50 per cent choice and the students now have to attempt only four or five questions respectively”.
“As there are no sections in the language papers, we are giving a choice to attempt any 50 marks – 50 per cent – out of the given 100 and that then will be proportionately added up to make it equal to 100 per cent,” Professor Chatt added.
Replying to a question with regards to students who have been injured in the ongoing unrest, the BOSE Chairman those students who have been injured can approach the Board and would be provided a helper to write their exams.
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