J&K board exams will be only for 50% syllabus

SRINAGAR: Question papers will be in such a manner that any student who has studied even 50% of the syllabus can attempt questions for 100 marks, said Zahoor Ahmad Chatt, chairman, J-K Board of School Education (JKBOSE) in a press conference in Srinagar on Thursday.

Board examinations for Class 10 and 12 are less than two weeks away in Kashmir. Students are in a conundrum as the syllabus is incomplete due to shutdown of schools since July.

Although the board did not curtail the syllabus by cutting down on specific chapters, it announced that for Class 12 exams, in all subjects barring languages, students have to answer only half the questions in a given type of question—like long answer, short answer, very short and objective. For language papers, the student has to attempt only 50 marks out of 100.

Chatt said although there would be no reduction in syllabus, the question papers have been redesigned to help students. He added that if questions appear with an internal choice (OR), students should treat them as independent questions.

Moreover, he announced, the timing of the examinations have been changed to 11am to 2pm from the earlier slot of 1pm to 4pm. “We have taken into account all difficulties faced by students and designed the relaxations to be offered and redesigned our question papers, which were made according to the usual pattern,” said Chatt.

He said if any student injured during the unrest wants to appear in exams, a ‘helper’ would be provided.