Errors force state education dept to scrap 26 questions
SCHOOL SCHOLARSHIP EXAMS IN THE CLASS 5 INTELLIGENCE QUOTIENT PAPER FOR ENGLISH-MEDIUM, WORD ‘BANDAR’, WHICH IN THIS CASE MEANT PORT, WAS TRANSLATED TO ‘MONKEY’ FROM THE MARATHI PAPER
MUMBAI: After a series of errors marred the Class 5 and 8 scholarship exams, the education department scrapped 26 questions from the exam.
The 300-mark exam consists of two parts: Paper I — English and Mathematics and Paper II — Marathi and Intelligence quotient.
Maharashtra State Council of Examination, the body which conducts the exam, declared that questions for 52 marks in four papers have been scrapped. The scholarship exam was conducted across Maharashtra on February 24.
The first language and intelligence papers for English-medium had several grammatical errors while several questions in the Mathematics paper had technical errors.
In the Class 5 intelligence quotient paper for English-medium, the word ‘bandar’, which in this case meant port, was translated to ‘monkey’.
In the Marathi paper ‘hivtap’, which is Malaria, was translated as ‘cold fever’. In a question related to figures of speech, simile was spelt as ‘simite’ while metaphor was ‘metapher.’
In the Mathematics paper, options for answers to several questions were incorrect.
“Students stressed as they wasted a lot of time cross-checking all their answers because the right answer was not there in the options. There were several mistakes in the papers this year, which has never happened before,” said a tutor from Borivli.
Dattatray Jagtap, chairperson for the state council of examination, said a lot of mistakes occurred during typing.
He added, “Usually, the question paper reaches the typing section after it is ready and isn’t shared with anyone else to avoid malpractice.”
Most mistakes seem to have cropped up at this stage owing to wrong typing. We have asked the department concerned to ensure that extra care is taken from the next time. The council will be open to objections in the papers, which can be submitted by March 15.”