By Our Chief Reporter
Panaji (Goa) The Goa Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (GBSHE) which conducts the examination for Secondary School Certificate (SSC) in the State is now facing the flak for setting up the science paper, which is termed as ‘difficult, twisted and strange’ by the association representing all the school Headmasters in Goa.
The Goa Headmasters’ Association (GHA), the body representing Heads of all the schools in the state, in their letter to GBSHE this week has said that the science paper set for SSC student was “very difficult, twisted and strange.”
“The students who answered the SSC examination were shocked and in tears to find a very difficult, twisted and strange science question paper. Parents, teachers and all stakeholders have expressed grave concern over the sudden change of the pattern and difficulty level of the science question paper,” GHA President Vithoba Desai has said in a letter written to GBSHE.
Total 20,261 students had answered the Science paper on April 11 during the week-long examination held at 27 centres across the State.
The GHA in their letter has said that sudden change of the pattern was shocking and fearful and even teachers too were not trained or prepared at any workshop to teach the changed pattern to the students.
“While on one hand no detention policy makes it mandatory to promote the student till eighth standard, it was strange to abruptly increase the understanding and application level of science at SSC,” the association has said.
Desai has said that all the students passing SSC examination do not opt for science stream at higher education, hence all of them may not be pressurized to gain very difficult knowledge of science.
“We express our concern about the students’ community more particularly of those hailing from rural areas for their endangered future and career,” the letter reads.
When contacted GBSHE Chairman Ramakrishna Samant said that the paper was set up by the board, considering intelligent, average as well as the weak students.
“The scrutiny committee of the board has endorsed that the particular paper catered to all three categories of students – intelligent, average and weak,” he said.
Samant said that National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) in the recent past had conducted a survey for Goa during which they observed that the Goan students are facing problems in Science and Mathematics subjects.
“The NCERT conducted workshops for science teachers in New Delhi followed by similar workshops in the State were organised by State Council for Educational Research and Training in December 2017,” he said.
“During the workshops the teachers were given clear idea about possibility of such papers being set up for the students,” he said.
