Students take matriculation examination

Bhubaneswar, Oct. 29: The state government has decided to replace marks with grades in the matriculation examination to reduce stress levels and unhealthy competition among students.

Apart from this, exam papers will have multiple-choice objective and long-answer type questions in a 50:50 ratio. These measures, which had been recommended by a high-power committee of the Board of Secondary Education (BSE), will come into force from 2014.

“We want to make the whole system student-friendly. The recommendations had been discussed at a symposium on October 3 in which educationists, teachers, students and parents took part. These measures shall be implemented with immediate effect,” said minister of school and mass education Rabi Narayan Nanda.

BSE officials said grades would be awarded on a nine-point grading system — A1 (91-100), A2 (81-90), B1 (71-80), B2 (61-70), C1 (51-60), C2 (41-50), D (33-44), E (21-32) and F (below 20).

“Results will not be declared in terms of pass and fail either. Students securing grades between A1 and D will be treated as qualified. Grades E and F will stand for unsatisfactory,” said board secretary in-charge Shashank Shekhar Acharya. As far as the question pattern is concerned, a student would be required to attempt 50 objective questions on optical mark recognition (OMR) sheets in an hour. The duration to answer subjective questions worth 50 marks would be 90 minutes. Students will get a small break between the two tests.

As against the current practice of working out one master set question, which is then jumbled to make three sets, plans are on to prepare four or five question papers sets in each subject.

The paper would then be handed over to the BSE president, who would compile the sets and send it for printing.

“We are taking urgent steps to prepare sample question papers and acquaint students with the new pattern in the pre-test. We have sought the assistance of the Odisha Secondary School Teachers’ Association for this. Answering on OMR sheets will reduce the scope of human error as well as the burden on examiners,” Acharya said.

“A grade system is a welcome step. It will help students overcome exam-phobia and check unhealthy competition among them. Inclusion of more objective-type questions in the question paper will ensure that they cover the entire syllabus instead of banking on rote memory,” said Bandana Mohapatra, a teacher.

Board officials said closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras would be installed in sensitive exam centres. Other proposals such as fixing exam centres, allowing students to sit for exams in their own schools while deputing invigilators from outside, penalties for errors in evaluation and other exam-related processes will be discussed at a BSE meeting tomorrow.

A Class-X student, Mrutyunjay Sahoo, said: “Multiple-choice questions will help us score better.”