CBSE assures to look into confusion in English paper

NEWDELHI:Apart from some confusion over a question in the reading section, the Central Board of Secondary Education’s Class 10 English paper turned out to be ‘easy’.

Teachers said in the first section — reading — students were expected to find synonyms of endurance, obstruction and motivation in paragraphs two, four and five, respectively, after reading a given passage about success. However, the correct answers, as per the teachers, were stamina, obstacle, and inspiration, respectively, which were found in paragraphs three and six, respectively.

Mahua Mallick, a Class 10 English teacher at Ahlcon International School, said a few students could not locate these words while others who did not rely on the paragraph cues found them.

“So there are three marks hanging in the balance. Even in the last question, in the literature section, students were to attempt one question out of the four for 10 marks. But some students were confused whether they were to attempt one question or two because of the way it was presented,” she said.

A CBSE spokesperson said, “The board will take care of the matter before finalising the marking scheme for the evaluation of this paper.”

However, Ameeta Wattal the principal of Springdales School on Pusa Road said it was not a big issue and students would have found the correct answer if they read the passage carefully.

Otherwise, the paper was said to be “well-balanced”.

“In the literature section, students would have been able to answer if they had read the texts closely, and if not they still had a choice. Rest of the paper was quite straightforward,” said Nita Jain, English teacher at DPS, Mathura Road.

“There was enough time. The reading section was a bit tricky but others were not tough,” said Rishabh Bobhal of Evergreen Senior Secondary School, Vasundhara Enclave.