SHUBHANGI SHIFA
Ranchi, Nov 2: The Jharkhand Academic Council (JAC) is set to hold matriculation and intermediate examinations from the new academic session in single terms. Along with this, JAC is also prepared to change the format of the question papers in these examinations to be held in March 2023.
This decision has been taken after directions from the Jharkhand government and the Department of School Education and Literacy Development. As per the instructions, JAC has to prepare 40-mark objective question papers for answers through the OMR sheet from the entire syllabus in the Matriculation and Inter examination of 2023. Another 40 marks will be for short and long answer questions from the syllabus.
As per a JAC official, the question paper will include both objective and subjective questions for the examination for 40 marks each. “While there will be an internal assessment in the school and inter-college for 20 marks, the rest of the marks will be provided on the basis of the question papers in the Matriculation and Intermediate examinations,” the official said on the condition of not being named.
He continued, “One and a half hours will be given to solve both. The examinees will first solve the questions on the OMR sheet while after a 5-10 minutes break, the subjective questions will be provided to the students.”
He further said that preparations for the same will begin after the guidelines from the Jharkhand Council of Educational Research and Training (JCERT). Notably, the examination for both Matric and Intermediate 2023 is set to begin in the first week of March. Before this, the practical exams will be held in February.
It is also being said that in the case of a two-term examination, the syllabus of the students was not completed properly. According to the rules, there should be a class system for 220 days in a year. Due to the two terms, the educational institutions did not get enough time to complete the courses.
Earlier, the session would start in July and forms for the first term would be filled in the months of September-October. After this, the schools and colleges would become exam centres and examinations would begin. Soon after, teachers would get busy with evaluations. Teachers would take one to one and a half months for this.
The second-term forms would then be filled up in January. After that, the preparation for the exam starts and the whole process would continue till May. Along with this, JAC would face financial crunches as well due to the two terms as payment for correction, paper cost and other expenses would be doubled for an academic year.
Officials at the school education department have claimed that the administrative, evaluation and examination expenses for the two examinations were significant. Along with this, the syllabi were also difficult to finish in such a scenario.
Meanwhile, government school teacher Rekha Singh said, “There will be no mental pressure on the students if JAC conducts examination in one term instead of two. Teachers will be able to complete the syllabus in an effective manner instead of the rushed way earlier. Along with this, even expenses made by JAC will be reduced and the remaining amount can be used for other purposes.”
