Tamil Nadu seems to have students who are masters of English, going by the class X results. Teachers are flummoxed at students being given full marks in their English papers, a trend which has started two years back.
“This is something weird which is happening,” said Rebecca Charles, an English teacher, adding that centums in English should not be given. “We are not native speakers of the language. There are bound to be some flaws in their answers,” she said.
Rebecca also said while correcting board exam papers last year, she found several answers with similar wordings. “Teachers ask the students to follow the answers in the guide. During evaluation, full marks are given if the relevant points are there. This does not account for their usage of the language,” she said.
“In language, there is no such thing as perfect. The top scorers are not masters of the language. These marks do not account for their style and language flow,” T Helen, English lecturer at a city college said.
The method of teaching English in colleges is completely different, says Helen. “If anyone writes exactly what is in the textbook, I would not give them a full score,” she adds.