Siliguri, March 23: Close on the heels of a controversy regarding difficult questions and paper leaks, the Madhyamik examination this year has come under fire from the academic fraternity here for “poor” Nepali translations.

Not unlike last year, when similar anomalies were detected in the physical and life science papers, this year too the students have been left wondering what their results are going to be like. Teachers, academicians and intellectuals have also taken exception to the “utter negligence” of the board.

While most of the translation errors were detected in the mathematics paper, many questions in the life science and physical science papers were also described as being ambiguous and incomprehensible.

“The transliteration and improper use of technical terms has not only made students suffer, but also made the Nepali language sound comic,” said the headmaster of a Nepali-medium school who did not want to be named.

The following are some of the errors detected in the Math paper.

1. Question number 9 (a) in Nepali states: Eotai vrittaka konka man saman hunchan sidha gara, which translates as: Prove that the angles inside the same circle are equal. This is impossible to prove and verges on the absurd. The same question in English reads: Prove that angles in the same segment of a circle are equal. This alters the meaning completely.

2. Question number 9 (d) in English reads: PQRS is a rectangle and A is any point inside the rectangle. Prove AP² + AR²= AQ² +AS². In the Nepali version, the question does not say where the point lies.

3) Question 12 (c) in Nepali does not have the word lambarupma, meaning “perpendicular”, which renders it ambiguous.

In other subjects too similar translation errors were found.

Question 1 (ix) of the life science paper in Nepali reads: Paatle tayar pareko khadya udbhidako kun utakdwara sancharit huncha. This translates as: Which plant tissues are responsible for transporting food produced in the leaves? The question in English, however, reads: Through which tissue is water transported from the roots to the leaves?

“We feel deprived. Our friends who wrote in other languages will get higher marks though it is no fault of ours. We asked the invigilators for clarification, but as they were non-Nepali speaking they could not help us. It took a long time to understand the question. I could answer only questions worth 40 marks,” said Rekha Pariyar, a Madhyamik candidate.