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Teachers defend Geography madhyamik exam
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News Byte on 24 February, 2008 07:12:00
 
While Madhyamik examinees cried foul over some questions in the Geography paper,
teachers said the questions could be “confusing” but were not out of
syllabus.
Several complaints surfaced over two questions in Group A which catered to map
pointing. In the first one, the examinees have been asked to mark a copper
producing centre on the map of India and in the other, they had to locate Suez
Canal on the map of Asia. However, denying the questions were out of syllabus,
Mr Ranajit Garang, teacher of Howrah Zilla School said, “Both the topics
are included in the syllabus. If the students have studied Chota Nagpur Plateau
carefully, they would know that several copper producing centres have been
mentioned there.” At the same time he mentioned a question in Group B was
definitely taught in class.
While accepting that initially the questions might appear to be confusing for
examinees, Ms Krishna Ganguly, teacher of Sakhawat Memorial Government
Girls’ High School said, “We cannot say the questions were not
included in the syllabus but certain conceptual changes were made. Students who
were attentive in class and had studied the text thoroughly must have been able
to answer the questions.”
As far as the question which asked to distinguish between multi-purpose dam and
barrage, she said the text books might not clearly state the differences but
their definitions and characteristics have been mentioned.
However, Ms Mamata Ray, president of West Bengal Board of Secondary Education
refused to accept any complaints about the paper.