New question paper pattern sans blueprint

Chennai: If one has to go by the half-yearly exam results, the new question paper pattern sans blueprint will throw up a huge challenge to state board plus-2 students in the upcoming board exams.

The number of students with above 90 per cent marks in half-yearly exams conducted in December has drastically come down compared to the previous year.

Both government and private schools witnessed a steep decline in high scores and the headmasters said the trend will likely to continue in the board exams as well.

“Out of 400 students, more than 100 students scored above 90 per cent marks last year in the half-yearly exams. This year around 10 students alone were able to score above 90 per cent marks,” said G.J.Manohar, the headmaster of MCC Higher Secondary School in Chetpet.

Since the Directorate of Government Examinations has scrapped the blueprint method from this year, students have to prepare an entire book to score good marks in exams. It has resulted in a huge variation in the range of marks this year.

“Only around 60 to 70 per cent students cleared the half-yearly exam in plus-2 this year. We expect more students to clear the board exams as they need only minimum marks to pass. But, scoring high marks will be a challenge,” he said.

Headmasters said a majority of scored around 50 to 60 per cent this year.

“Though we had more than 60 per cent results, only a handful of students scored above 80 marks this year. The range of marks has a huge variation as a majority of them scored around 50 to 60  per cent marks,” a headmaster from a city-based government school said.

Another headmaster said the trend will likely to continue for two to three years. “We are now in a transition period with revised textbooks and evaluation pattern. The students who score more than 90 per cent of marks will be able to clear any national level exams,” he said.

Some of the super schools in Namakkal region are also struggling without the blueprint.

“In our schools, we used to give equal importance to both plus-1 and plus-2. But there are many schools taught only plus-2 for two years. Since the government has converted the plus-1 exam as board exam, those schools were forced to teach plus-1 in the previous academic year,” P.Swaminathan, secretary, SRV schools in Namakkal and Tiruchi.

“After scrapping the blueprint, the students now have to read the entire book to score good marks. It will definitely bring down the number of centum and the students who have scored above 90 per cent marks in plus 2 board exams,” he said.

The pass marks for languages and non-practical subjects are 25 out of 90 marks and for practical subjects, it is 15 marks out of 70 marks. The school education department has awarded 10 marks for internal assessment in all the subjects. For practical exams, it would award 20 marks.  

Some teachers observed that after the introduction of Neet, the desire to score high marks in plus 2 exams among the students also has come down. “Earlier, the entire class would aspire to enter into MBBS. If they don't get MBBS they will enter into BSc Agriculture or BVSc courses. Now, the motivation among students to do well in board exams has come down,” they said.

“State board textbooks even under old syllabus have elaborate content. But following the blueprint method, students guided by their teachers learnt to score high marks without reading the entire book. Now it has to change,” officials from the school education department said.

“Teachers should adapt to concept-based teaching. With revised syllabus and new evaluation pattern, the state board schools can produce quality students. But, the process will take two to three years and we have to be patient,” they added.

The maximum marks for plus-2 board examination was reduced from 1200 to 600 marks in order to ease the examination stress of students.