Students of Jamshedpur Workers’ College protest against the sudden mock tests on Friday. Picture by Bhola Prasad

Several thousand intermediate candidates were taken by an unpleasant surprise when they were asked to appear for mock tests on Friday, with the Jharkhand Academic Council (JAC) having notified the same only 24 hours ago.

While many students appeared for the first day examinations absolutely unprepared, many more missed the test because they were simply unaware of the schedule.

On Thursday, the council notified the examination dates — November 21 to 29 — in daily newspapers. Schools and intermediate colleges were expected to download question papers from JAC’s official website on Friday and circulate it among students.

While many cradles were unable to download questions in the first place owing to unavailability of the Internet on campus or connection issues, the few which could, didn’t find many takers. Jamshedpur Co-operative College, which has doubled up as a strongroom in the wake of the Assembly elections, has requested the council for change of dates.

There are more than 130 government high schools and intermediate colleges across the state, comprising over 70,000 students in science, arts and commerce.

A group of intermediate students at Jamshedpur Workers’ College voiced their protest against the sudden notification for mock tests.

“These tests are meant to benefit students. They are supposed to test our preparedness for the board examinations. How can the council publish notification just a day ago? The notification should have been issued at least a week or two ahead of first test. We didn’t have the time to prepare. The whole purpose of a mock test has been compromised,” complained Awdhesh Anjan, an intermediate candidate at the college.

District education officer of Ranchi Shiv Charan Marandi said out of the 20 government high schools, more than half could not download JAC question papers. “Students have been greatly inconvenienced,” he added.

Braj Kishore Prasad, principal of Marwari High School in the state capital, said they had to start the examination half an hour behind schedule. “We faced problems in downloading the model questions because of connection glitch,” he said, adding that unlike them a number of government schools did not have computer and Internet facilities.

A council official defended their move.

“Mock tests were introduced last year. It helps students prepare for the board examinations by giving them an idea of the question pattern. Intermediate is slated in February-end and students should have been prepared by now,” he said, adding that Day One hosted the physics paper for science students and business maths for their commerce batchmates.

Usha Shukla, principal of Graduate School College for Women, contested the council logic. “Arranging an examination for more than 1,800 girls is not easy. At least 400 must have missed their first examination because they did not know and were absent today (Friday),” she said.

R.K. Das, principal of Jamshedpur Co-operative College, said they could not host the test. “We have no place to hold classes even, let alone arrange for an examination for 2,500 students. We have requested the council to reschedule the mock test for us in January,” he added.

Should JAC conduct a retest? Tell ttkhand@abpmail.com