Hundreds of CBSE students demand retest after ‘tough’ maths paper

Pic for representational purpose

Delhi: After a ‘tough’ question paper, hundreds of students across India on Tuesday demanded re-conduct of class XII mathematics paper of the Central Board of Secondary Education.

A report in Hindustan Times said that they were contacted by at least 20 students overnight over mail.

It also said that many more contacted over WhatsApp, challenging the CBSE to conduct an open forum to solve the paper.

Messages came from students in Jaipur and Jamshedpur too.

“Students like me went prepared with more than 50 mock papers solved but after seeing the paper we went blank. Honestly it wasn’t a paper for a normal student,” student Amogh Mukhi from Delhi’s Sanskriti School, was quoted as saying by the Daily.

The mathematics paper on Monday was said to be ‘lengthy and tough’ and students are said to have complained that even one-mark questions were tricky and a score above 90 would be difficult to get.

“I am a humanities student and I am used to write long answers, but the mathematics paper was even longer than humanities subject paper,” wrote Muskan from Jaipur.

“CBSE is, in a way, playing with our future .One hand they say don’t put pressure on kids, other hand such papers are set. Why are NCERT books in school curriculam when they are not followed in paper setting?” asked Latika Panghal.

“Keeping all subjects on stake, we are practising for maths throughout the year and see what has happened. We are totally heartbroken and depressed and are not able to concentrate for the next exam,” she added.

“Govt school still teaching 2014 level, CBSE wants IIT level. Those who play with the future of students must be punished,” Arun Bhatia was quoted as saying by the Daily.

On the other hand, a parent, Osheain Mehta, said, “With a heavy heart I saw my daughter coming out of the examination hall crying. I myself am a post graduate in Physics and it was shocking to see the marks distribution of the paper. I wonder why such an illogical marking scheme and an unusually lengthy paper was set. CBSE must award grace marks to the students to be fair with the Delhi students.”

Meanwhile, the issue was raised in Lok Sabha by KC Venugopal (Congress) who said the the paper have reportedly left students in tears.

"It was very lengthy. Maximum questions were from outside the syllabus. It was reported that questions were tricky...Students found it difficult to complete the exam on time," he said during Zero Hour, as per PTI.

This sort of tough paper should be avoided and "I urge the government to look into the exam and take necessary steps", Venugopal added.

Joining him, SR Vijayakumar (AIADMK) too said a number of students felt that the paper was lengthy and they could not complete it.

"I request the Human Resource Minister to look at the issue" and tell the CBSE to be liberal in valuation, he said.

(With Agency inputs)