26 May 2020  |   05:06am IST

Goa Board needs to take a test itself

Goa Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education has a lot of questions to answer based on just one question paper of the SSC exam.
Goa Board  needs to take  a test itself

The English language paper has thrown up more controversy than perhaps any other in the history of the Board. Admittedly in the past, there have been question papers with mistakes, but this time the Goa Board appears to have crossed the line. These are not mere printing errors that appeared on the question set, but involves misleading a child, and as the Bharatiya Janata Party members are demanding, action needs to be taken, but not just against the teacher who set the paper, but all those invovled in the paper setting process, up to the highest level.

The only response of the Goa Board is that they will inquire in the matter and action will be taken against whoever is responsible for the question. This defence of the Goa Board chairman is not enough, as it is not just one paper setter who is responsible here, but there is a process in paper setting, and more persons are involved. For that matter, the chairman himself has to assume responsibility for the printing error and also the questions that were set. For the moment we can gloss over the printing error that appeared, as there are other issues with the paper that are far more serious in nature. One question, a conversation between two friends ends up stating that acquiring a Portuguese passport and going to Portugal is the ‘right decision’ as one can get a job in Goa only through the use of influence and by making payments.

This statement in the question paper by Goa Board, amounts to an indictment of the State government, of its policies and further of attempting to influence a child that the situation in Goa is bleak and that there is little hope for their future in the State. Is this what Goa Board believes, and what it was attempting to tell the young teenagers through the question? Is it right to give the children the impression that their best attempt at making a life would be, not in Goa, but somewhere in Europe? Goa definitely has a better tomorrow if the children of today are taught the values of love for their motherland. Goa Board is apparently not doing this.

We do not need to get into the debate of whether this statement has an element of truth or not. The bottom line is that it should not have found space in a Class X question paper, or any school exam question paper. Discussing about such matters should be reserved for debates on television or in newspaper columns and also among friends. Scenes with such conversations would be perfectly acceptable in a theatre production or in a piece of fiction and even in a satire, but not ever in a Class X Board exam paper. Something has most definitely gone askew here.

The controvesry does not end here, for there is more. Another question on the same paper had a discussion between two friends about survival that ultimately leads to a suicide. Another was a statement on corruption and that it has affected Goans and Goa. One has to wonder as to what was the purpose of the question paper. Emerging slowly from a lockdown and entering into a classroom after two months, over 19,000 impressionable young minds of Class X – the future of our State – were confronted by these questions. Let’s reflect, were these questions fair? Were these the kind of questions that the students were expecting when they were preparing for the exam? Seriously, Goa Board needs to introspect and answer some questions. 

IDhar UDHAR

Idhar Udhar