MADURAI:In the wake of widespread criticism over thousands of students scoring full marks in public exams in Tamil Nadu, the Directorate of School Education is chalking out a strategy to introduce application-based questions in board examinations. The proposal is aimed at making State Board students competitive since recently the number of students from non-CBSE schools cracking competitive examinations and entering premier campuses such as the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) has drastically dipped.
“To test the students a bit more we intend to include application-based questions in board exams,” said director of School Education S Kannappan in Madurai on Friday.
Academics have welcomed the director’s comments as the number of students scoring centum in Class X board examinations had increased by an astounding 1,140 per cent or 12 times. Centum scorers in Class XII board examinations have doubled. “In the current academic year, the paper pattern of subjects like science would be altered so that students would have to apply themselves a bit more,” he said.
He made the comments at a meet organised to felicitate schools in Madurai which had secured cent per cent pass in board exams. “Making question papers application based is a good decision. There are many who get centums in Class XII after mugging up, but fail to clear exams after admission in engineering or medical colleges. These students don’t know even a word outside their textbooks,” said a government school headmaster.