A question on “pandemic species” in the environmental education paper of ICSE 2012 left examinees befuddled on Friday, with many complaining that it was an “out-of-syllabus topic” they had never heard of.

According to teachers, most of these students would have attempted answering the compulsory question carrying two marks had “pandemic species” been replaced with “endemic species”, a term that finds mention in the syllabus.

“The confusion was caused by the word pandemic, which is commonly used as an adjective for widespread disease rather than species. The majority of the students apparently couldn’t figure out what the question meant,” said the principal of a south Calcutta school.

Gerry Arathoon, the additional secretary and officiating chief executive of the Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations, said in the evening that his office hadn’t yet received a formal complaint from any school about the environmental education paper.

“But we will look into the matter and students will be compensated if we find that the allegation about the out-of-syllabus question is true,” Arathoon told Metro. “We will ensure that the students do not suffer.”

If the question is officially confirmed to be “out of syllabus”, examinees will get two marks just for attempting to answer it. But the rule book states that a student who hasn’t attempted answering the question won’t be eligible for marks even if it is found to be outside of the syllabus.

Overall, the gripe about Friday’s paper being “tough” was a pandemic.

If students used to learning by rote were caught off guard by some questions, many of their teachers said a paper that veered from the “usual pattern” was unfair on the examinees.

“Normally, students are given straight questions to answer in environmental education. But this time we found many of the questions to be application-based,” said a subject teacher who did not wish to be named.

Future ICSE batches, of course, won’t have to take a separate exam on environmental education despite the Supreme Court making the subject mandatory from the primary till undergraduate level.

The ICSE authorities last year merged various chapters of the subject with biology and chemistry.