Guwahati, March 8 : The All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) has termed the decision of the Board of Secondary Education Assam (SEBA) to conduct the ensuing High School Leaving Certificate (HSLC) and Assam High Madrassa (AHM) exams “using last year’s question papers” as “whimsical” and a move that might affect the future of students.
The Board had on Monday issued a notification stating that “the theory examinations of HSLC/AHM would be conducted using the question papers and answer booklets printed in the year 2021.”
“As the SEBA did not conduct the HSLC and AHM Examinations in the year 2021 in the manner conducted during the pre-COVID period, the question papers and answer booklets prepared in the year 2021 remained unutilised and are being used for the year 2022, to avoid misuse of natural resources,” the notification read.
The HSLC and AHM exams (Class 10 board exams) in Assam are scheduled to be held from March 15, 2022. Altogether, 4,32,884 students will appear in the HSLC/AHM exam across 903 centres.
The Board further mentioned that question papers of 2021 exams were prepared on the basis of a syllabus which is “strictly in accordance with” the syllabus prescribed for this year’s syllabus.
“The notification has put the students and their guardians in a quandary now with just a week left for the HSLC exam. This move is whimsical and indicates lack of long-term planning or seriousness on the part of SEBA to conduct the exam properly,” AASU general secretary Shankarjyoti Baruah said.
Baruah even said that a teacher had intimated the students union about what was forthcoming and expressed concern about whether it would be appropriate for the students to appear in the exams with the old set of question papers.
“Thereafter, we had appealed to the Board to clarify through a media conference the process of conducting the exams so as to allay apprehensions of students and guardians. But instead, the Board issued a notification, which has put everyone in a fix,” he said.
Meanwhile, Assam education minister Ranoj Pegu on Tuesday clarified that the 2021 exam question papers were based on 40 percent and not 30 percent truncated syllabus.
Allaying apprehensions of students and guardians, Pegu assured that question papers of this year’s HSLC examinations would be from the curtailed syllabus and no questions would be set from outside the syllabus.
“No student should be concerned about the syllabus/question papers,” the education minister said.