CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government's decision to scrap blueprint based question papers is giving sleepless nights for teachers and students, alike, who are finding it hard to revise for the final exams effectively.
The question paper blueprints provided information of weightage of questions from each chapter, allowing students to study chapters selectively and still manage to attend all questions.
The blueprint allowed students to effectively manage their time and select chapters they can study thoroughly, said a headmistress of a private school in Chennai explaining that while it hampered comprehensive learning, it controlled the panic students face as Board exams approach.
Teachers also conduct final revisions based on the blueprint, for slow learners. "During my Class 10 exams, I was able to study enough to pass. But now I don't know which chapters to study before the exams," said a student from a corporation school in the city.
Interestingly, the scrapping of the blueprints is also affecting toppers. Revising the entire book for one-mark-questions to ten-mark-questions is difficult and it might prevent students from scoring full marks, said a student who scored more than 90 percent in class 10.
Teachers in the districts also notice that the scrapping of blueprint based question papers is stressing out students. "We still train them using important questions and previous year's question papers. But since there is no certainty that questions will come from particular chapters, students are stressed," said a higher secondary physics teacher from Ramanathapuram.
A headmistress from a government school in Vellore said that teachers are also found lacking. Teachers should be able to teach students regardless of blueprint. Students are young and they will adjust in a few years but teachers must be able to teach the entire portions without omitting chapters, she said.