Most states to miss March 31 deadline for compliance with Right to Education Act

On Monday, when the deadline for compliance with the Right to Education (RTE) Act expires, children will get a short shrift again. Government data shows about 40% primary schools don't have adequate teachers, 33% are without girls' toilets and 39% lack ramps for children with disabilities.

With the enactment of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act in 2009 all states and Union Territories were expected to comply with the norms by March 31, 2013 — a deadline that most states will miss. These norms included optimum pupil-teacher ratio, infrastructure rules like adequate drinking water, toilets, stipulated working days and instruction hours and establishment of school management committees.

Of the 52 lakh sanctioned posts of teachers, there are 11 lakh vacancies. Besides shortage, states are also battling the malaise of untrained or under-qualified teachers that is pegged at around 8.6 lakh or 20% of the total teachers. The states with the bulk of these teachers is West Bengal (1.97 lakh), Bihar (1.86 lakh) and Jharkhand (77,000). Infrastructure norms for drinking water (94% of schools) and ramps (in 61% of schools) have been complied with, while 64% schools have separate toilets for girls and boys.

States have sought an extension in the deadline as they flounder due to lack of adequate resources and political will. But experts point to a more worrying concern: the lack of attention to learning outcomes. Several studies, including the ASER survey 2012, say that while enrolment has increased and more children are going to school, learning levels have dipped.

Noting that over three lakh private budget schools face closure after March 31 — the deadline for meeting infrastructure requirements under the Act, impacting 4-5 crore students — Ashish Dhawan from Centre Square Foundation said private school regulation should be based on audited performance rather than input-based norms.

Educational Initiatives' SridharRajagopalan said that regular and third party measurement of learning was required. Giving the example of Gujarat that organizes an annual assessment for student learning called `Gunatsav', Rajagopalan said that students were assessed by teachers in the first round and then 25% randomly picked schools were assessed by ministers and senior officials led by CM NarendraModi.

Accountability Initiatives' Yamini Aiyer pointed out that learning outcomes had to become part of the states' and Centre's goals. She also underlined the importance of the school management committees and greater involvement of parents in running a school.

Civil society representatives said that a large number of low-fee private schools faced closure because of undue emphasis on infrastructure issues rather than learning outcomes.

Question bank for NEET, JEE now on website

Officials of Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSHSEB) said that the question bank for HSC (science) students preparing for the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE), the common engineering test and National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET), common medical entrance test for admission to colleges across India, has been uploaded on the board's official website. Students can download the material for free and use it to prepare for the entrance exams.

Officials also said that a helpline for SSC and HSC board students and their parents, will be launched from Friday. The toll-free number of the helpline is 1800 233 5500. The helpline will be active from February 15 to March 25. Students can call at any time from 8 am to 8 pm.

Later, the helpline will be activated from April 8 to 16 for students and parents who have questions regarding the Gujarat Common Entrance Test as well NEET and JEE.

Students seeking answers for questions regarding the exams and those feeling anxious and stressed can call the helpline. The number will be manned by both education and psychological counselors.

It needs mention that the board launched the question bank on February 6, for the benefit of students. Since there was tremendous response, the board decided to upload the question bank on its website.

"Given the response from students, there would have been an issue reprinting booklets. Plus, the students had to come to the DEO in each district to take the booklets. Hence we decided to upload the booklet for the benefit of the students," said a board official.

Officials said the question bank consists of 3,015 questions in physics, 3,488 in chemistry, 4,789 in biology and 1,980 questions in maths.

Secondary Education Board of Assam revamps exam, result pattern

In the lines of Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), the Board of Secondary Examination, Assam (SEBA) has also decided to change the evaluation pattern and for that, special workshop will be conducted by the officials of SEBA and CBSE soon.

Education minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday said SEBA officials will have to undertake a special training on evaluation in the CBSE pattern.

"It is always said that the evaluation pattern of CBSE is better, so from now on, we will hold a special workshop for the officials of both SEBA and CBSE so that the officials can learn the evaluation pattern," he said.

Besides that, two different sets of question papers will be set for each subject so that if there is an emergency situation, the second set of question paper can be issued. "This time, we faced a situation where the question paper had to be changed and so it took a lot of time to bring out a fresh set of question papers. So, we will have two sets of question papers from now on so that emergency situations can be taken care of without any hiccups," he said.

The minister said there will also be a change in the result pattern. From this time, the results will be declared on the website and will also be available on SMS.

"The results will be declared on the website and on the day the results are out, the SEBA chairman will name a list of students who secure a good position in the exam in a special press meet," he said.

The minister also stated that NCERT prescribed books will be followed for science and maths in class 9 from now on. Close circuit TV cameras (CCTV) are likely to be installed in the examination centres to ensure that cheating and other malpractices are curbed during the examination.

"We will either install CCTV camera or do a video recording in all the examination centres like we did for the Combined Entrance Examination (CEE) this time to curb cheating and other malpractices," he said.

Assam HSLC results to be declared today

The office of the Board of Secondary Education, Assam (Seba), is abuzz with activities as all the officials are busy with last-minute preparations for the much awaited results of the High School Leaving Certificate examination ( HSLC) and Assam High Madrassa (AHM) examination, which would be declared today.

This year, the matric examination went through a lot of controversies, one being distribution of wrong set of question papers of general science due to which the exam had to be rescheduled. Besides, some answersheets were devoured by cows at an evaluation centre in Goalpara, owing to which the result is being declared even late than last year.

At the Seba office, almost all officials started dispatching the results to different centres since Tuesday and by Thursday, all result sheets would be despatched in all the 51 zones. To ensure that the work is done on time, all the officials are working even on the holidays, Seba officials said.

Basanta Das, secretary of Seba, added, "Work is in its final phase now and we are working till 9 pm every day and even on holidays. Since there were some goof-ups this time, we have to be extra cautious."

He added, "Last year, the results were declared on May 27. But this time, it had to be delayed. So, now we are ensuring that no further errors take place and in every zone, the results are declared before 12pm on Friday."

Another official, who was busy with the listing, said, "Result time is always rush time and we are working even on Sundays. So taking leave is out of question. All departments have been assigned different work.'

He added, "We don't mind the hard work as the board conducts only one exam in a year. Before the exam, it was the students who worked hard. After the exams, we have to give our best to ensure that all students get their fruits of hard labour."

Maharashtra SSC 90% plus club shrinks, gives ICSE, CBSE admission edge

Maharashtra's SSC pass rate rose by 4% to 75%, and Mumbai's went up by a marginal 0.7% to reach 80.7%, but hidden behind these small successes is a slowdown. The number of students getting 90% and higher dropped by 41.5% in the state from 42,731 last year to 24,994 in 2012.

In Mumbai, the drop is by 48.6%, from 14,523 students last year to 7,459. Fewer students got 80% and higher too. Among those who cracked the exam, the largest chunk—45%—have scores of 35-59%. With most ICSE and CBSE students holding better scorecards, the upcoming admission season looks rocky for SSC students. Sports marks, best-5 gloss fades this year

For at least three years now, since 2009, it seemed like the academic world was riding a wave. With each passing year, the results were a bigger splash. The population of high scorers climbed as students milked every scheme visible on the horizon—whether it was the best-5 policy or the generous giveaway of up to 4% to sports stars. It seemed like the levees had crashed as a flood of 90-percenters came. This year, the count has dropped.

Like last year, 21,171 students applied for the additional marks in sports this year but it seems like the magic has faded off the additional marks granted and the best-5 policy. School education minister Rajendra Darda said the board would look into the factors behind the drop in high scorers. But most teachers reasoned that it was because of the changed format of science and maths papers, which included questions under a fresh section that required 'high order thinking skills'.

Sanskriti Merchant, from Fort Convent High School, scored 98% after calculating the best five scores. Merchant said, "This year, the science paper was totally different from the ones that we practised for, those of the previous years. Some of the questions were application based, where we had to really think. Also, problems were not from the textbook, like they usually are. Many must have found it tougher."

Sarjerao Jadhav, state board chairman, said the overall success rate had gone up in the state because the timetable for the exams was given well in advance and the exam was spread over a month, thus giving students enough time to study without stress.

Schools that managed to get a 100% result have increased. Over 2,500 schools in Maharashtra got 100% pass results, while 97 schools had the dubious distinction of not seeing a single student clear the board.

Meanwhile, the Konkan division, a new one culled out of the Mumbai and Kolhapur divisions, did best with a 90.8% pass percentage. Mumbai's pass percentage secured it fourth place among divisions, a drop from last year's second rank. On a more predictable count, girls outperformed boys.

Few Maharashtra board students score above 90%, tough admission battle looms

SSC students in the city may find it tough to fend off the challenge from other boards during junior college admissions as barely 2.5% of state board students managed to score 90% or above.

State board data shows that a mere 7,459 students in Mumbai and 24,994 students in Maharashtra (about 2% of those who passed) went past the 90% barrier. The number has almost halved from last year, when 14,523 students in Mumbai (5.1%) and 42,731 in Maharashtra (3.7%) scored 90% and above. Even in 2010, at least 13,456 students in Mumbai (4.8%) and a total of 40,928 in the state achieved the feat,

Most college principals were concerned about the fate of state board students during junior college admissions considering the fact that at least 30-40% students in most ICSE and CBSE schools have scored 90% and above.

Indu Shahani, principal of HR College said, "This is a matter of concern but over the past two years, we have noticed that the high cut-offs usually average out by the second merit list. Hopefully it will continue this year too, so that students don't suffer." She said that as results of other education boards get better with every passing year, top city colleges might be taken over by students from other boards. "This year, most students who graduated from degree colleges too have been from other boards," she added.

The fall in the number of top scorers will mostly have a bearing on the composition of top colleges.

"This will definitely impact the number of state board students in getting through to a college and course of their choice, especially in bifocal subjects. However, other boards have their own formula for calculating scores so hopefully, when they apply to junior colleges online, their scores might match the scores of state board students," said Shobhana Vasudevan, principal of RA Podar College, Matunga. She added that state board students might need a lot of counseling after the results. "For most students, their Class X scores are very important and if they fail to achieve what they desire, they are bound to get depressed," she added.

Rohan Bhatt, principal of Childrens' Academy said, "The numbers of top scorers in our school has definitely gone down. Many students have told us that they scored lower than expected in science, though other subjects were up to the mark." Gauri Dighe, science teacher at V N Sule School said clubbing science-I and II was extremely stressful for most students. People's Welfare School principal Hema Kannan reasoned the drop in number of high scorers to the fact that the upgraded math and science syllabus was a challenge for several kids.

With scores falling in science and maths, the overall results didn't present a pretty picture for many.

This year, the board introduced a new element in the curricula- High Order Thinking Skills - a section in which students had to apply knowledge from various chapters before they could answer the questions.

Shobhna Bhide, a teacher at Anandiketan, Nashik, and a member of the state's board of studies for science, said, "Till last year, the format of the question paper was such that every student who studied the text could answer all questions. But this time, the HOTS section required a lot of thinking. In the final count, performance in that section separated the really bright students from average kids." S Chakraborty, a teacher from an Andheri-based school, said, "Many science teachers have found that students performed miserably in science. Some questions carrying more marks were based on application. Those questions were easy, but our state board students were new to this pattern. Many must have found it difficult to attempt these questions. Also studying the whole portion for both section I and II in a day was difficult."

However, the success rate in most subjects has gone up. Last year, overall pass percentage plunged by 7% in the state, one of its reasons being the dip in success rate of subjects. This year, more students passed in all subjects. In English (first language), 97.7% of the total students passed, up from last year's 95.9% in the state. The success rate in languages like Hindi (90.4%) and Marathi (92%) also went up by a couple of percentages. The overall rise in the state's success rate is also attributed to the rise in students' performances in different subjects.

83.75% clear UP Board High School exams

The year 2012 has brought a bagful of joy for UP Board examinees as the High School results this year registered an astonishing overall pass percentage of 83.75, which is 12.93% more than the overall pass percentage of 70.82 recorded last year.

Once again the fairer sex has stolen a march over their male counterparts as the overall pass percentage of girls is an impressive 88.95 against 79.61 of boys, a sizeable difference of 9.34%.

Barabanki continued to be the cynosure of all eyes as three students of the district jointly shared the top position in the state with an aggregate of 96.50%. What's heartening is the fact that two of the three are girls -- Pooja Yadav of Maharani Laxmi Bai Inter College, Barabanki and Aakanksha Singh of Saraswati Vidya Mandir Inter College, Barabanki.

The third topper, Anna Yadav is a student of BRGP Higher Secondary School, Baraiyya Suratganj, Barabanki.

This year, a total of 35,59,196 students appeared in High School examinations conducted by the UP Board, out of which 19,79,928 were boys and 15,79,268 girls. Among these, 28,39,303 appeared as regular candidates while 1,41,610 appeared privately, said director, Secondary Education, Basudeo Yadav, while announcing the results here on Friday.

Yadav said that district wise, Varanasi recorded the highest overall pass percentage of 92.13 while Lalitpur was the lowest on the table with 70.81%.

Yadav said that after a gap of four years, the overall pass percentage of students has doubled in the backdrop of the fact that it was 40.07 in 2008 while it has climbed to 83.75 in 2012. This is a very healthy trend, he added. This year the Board conducted the High School examinations from March 16 to April 2 at 9,869 examination centres across the state. The evaluation of answer books was undertaken between April 26 to May 10 at 155 centres.

This year a total of 475 jail inmates from different jails across the state appeared in High School examinations, out of which 387 were declared successful. The overall pass percentage of jail inmates recorded a healthy 81.5. Besides, the overall pass percentage of boys this year increased by 13.58 while that of girls went up by 12.03.

Also, as a part of Continued and Comprehensive Evaluation Policy, the High School examinees were allotted 70 marks in the theory papers while the remaining 30 marks were awarded in practical and internal assessment. Under the National Education Policy, a nine point grading system was adopted in theoretical subjects while five-point grading system was adopted in practical subjects.

To check the malpractice of changing answer books in some districts by lumpen elements, the UP Board had distributed numbered answer sheets in 10 districts, including Allahabad, Kaushambi, Hathras, Aligarh, Etah, Azamgarh, Mau, Ballia, Ghazipur and Deoria.

Subject wise, Anthropology and Punjabi recorded 100 percent results as 116 students who appeared in former and 352 in latter were declared successful. On the other hand, Assamese recorded the lowest pass percentage of 14.29 as only one of the seven students who appeared in the examination managed to muster passing marks.

PSEB declares senior secondary examination results

The Punjab School Education Board on Thursday declared the results of the Senior Secondary (10+2) Examination. Students can check their results by entering respective roll numbers on its official website http://www.pseb.ac.in/

UP board declares class X results

The Board of High School and Intermediate Education, Allahabad on Friday declared the High School (Class 10) examination results at 12:30 pm.

Students can get their results by entering their respective roll numbers on its official website http://upresults.nic.in/

Tamil Nadu SSLC results by noon today

The directorate of government examinations will release the Class 10 board exam results at 1.30pm on Monday. Around 11.5 lakh students had registered for the exam this year.

This is the first year that students of four boards — Matriculation, Anglo-Indian, Oriental and state board —wrote the exam based on the common school syllabus. This was also the first time that students in the state board schools attempted science practical exams.

The results, which are usually out by the end of May, are delayed this year because the exams were postponed from March end to the first week of April. The state decided to delay the exams as students got their textbooks only two months after schools reopened, thanks to the court battle over common syllabus.

The state has decided to incorporate security features such as the photograph of the candidate and a unique quick response code, to prevent forgery, in the certificate.

Maharashtra HSC results out today

The Maharashtra State Board for Secondary and Higher Secondary Education will declare HSC results for the year 2012 on Friday, May 25 at 1 pm. The board chairman Sarjerao Jadhav informed www.myeducationtimes.com that, students can check their results on http://mahresult.nic.in/. Students can enter their seat numberto check their marks. Students can collect marksheets from their respective colleges.

Matric exam concludes, over 10,000 held for cheating in Odisha

It seems the efforts of the Board of Secondary Education to check malpractices in the matriculation exam have yielded results, with 10,015 students booked for cheating this year. This is the highest number of examinees ever caught for using unfair means in the matriculation examinations. The examinations got over on Thursday.

Last year, 7,000 students were booked for malpractices, while in 2010, the figure was 2,046. This year, around 6,372 examinees were booked for malpractice in regular stream and the rest were ex-regular examinees. Board officials said the maximum number of cheating cases was reported from Sambalpur central zone. Board officials have expressed concern over the rising number of malpractice cases.

"This year a record number of students have been booked. The figures themselves speak about the gravity of the problem, malpractice in matriculation exam has become a deep rooted problem," said Satyakam Mishra, president of the board. The students booked for malpractice will be debarred from appearing in matriculation exam for three years.

Apart from the students, the board has also decided to take stringent action against 14 invigilators and six centre superintendents who were found guilty of abetting malpractice.

"We have written to the state government to take stringent action against the invigilators and centre superintendents who were found abetting malpractice," said Nihar Mohapatra, board secretary.

Evaluation of answer sheets will begin from May 1 and will continue till May 15. Answer scripts will be corrected at 71 centres across the state and more than 21,000 teachers will be involved in the process.

The board has decided to transport the answer sheets directly to the evaluation centres from the examination centres to avoid wastage of time.

"Earlier answer sheets were collected at a receiving centre and from there they were sent to evaluation centres. In the process, seven days were lost, so this time we have decided to transport the answer sheets directly from the exam centre to evaluation point," said Mishra.

Board officials have informed that the results would be out by first week of July. This year atleast 5.11 lakh students appeared for the matriculation examination at 2,261 centres across the state. Over 122 flying squads were formed to keep vigil on these centres.

The matriculation examination had started on March 19, but on March 21, question papers of seven subjects were stolen from an exam centre, Bhagabati Vidyapitha, in Puri district following which the exam was stalled . The exam resumed on April 17 and concluded on Thursday.

Evaluation of UP Board answer sheets begins

The evaluation of copies UP Board high school and intermediate exams started on Thursday amid tight security.

Additional secretary, UP Board, Vinod Krishna said 236 evaluation centres have been set up across the state and 1,14,000 examiners deputed for evaluation.

At Allahabad, nine evaluation centres have been set up. These are Government Inter College, CAV Inter College, KP Inter College, Dr KP Jaiswal Inter College, Sewa Samiti Inter College, Agrasen Inter College, Jamuna Christian Inter College, Bharat Scouts and Guides School and Kesar Vidyapeeth. In Allahabad, 6,500 examiners will evaluated the copies.

This year, a total of 2,46,947 students appeared in the board examinations from Allahabad. Out of these, 1,37,809 appeared in high school and 1,09,138 in intermediate exams.

Second semester exam of XI (science) begins in Gujarat

Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSHSEB) is conducting the second semester examination of Class XI (science) from Monday. Nearly 1.18 lakh students are appearing for the examination.

The board had introduced the semester system in Class XI (science) and this will be extended to Class XII (science) from this year. The students will have to appear for four semester examinations in Class XI and XII, with each examination carrying a weightage of 25 per cent.

On Monday, the students appeared for Mathematics paper, which they claimed was not very difficult but was lengthy and that the questions had been asked from the text book. However, one case of copying was registered in Anand. tnn

"It was an extremely lengthy question paper. I did not even get a single minute to revise. I completed it dot on time. Some of the questions were twisted and I was not able to solve them. I expect to get 70 marks", said Ajay Rawat , a Class XI student.

"I would say it was nice but a lengthy paper. I was not able to attend around 10 mark question. Even some of the MCQs were twisted and called for a lot of thinking", Rohan Sharma, another Class XI student, said.

Can education be learning oriented than result based?

In eighth grade, I was fond of history. Not that I was good at it in terms of rattling off at the drop of a hat the nuanced wars of India or recalling which prince followed which Mogul king in which year. But I kind of enjoyed imagining how those times and its peoples would have been.

Unfortunately, my imaginings peaked during the history period when Mrs R (who was called Missss R; all teachers were called 'Miss' irrespective of their marital status) would be droning on about some random facet of History or Civics expecting us to miraculously cram it all up. I suppose my disinterest in her drone was evident and she invariably picked on me rather harshly. One morning, she seemed to have had enough and came down on me rather sharply asking some nuanced facts about her subject which I was obviously not able to recall. I was banished out of the class for 'not paying attention'.

It's been over two decades but I can vividly recall the humiliation at what I felt was being 'exposed' in front of 60 other girls. Since then I have dreaded Social Studies classes even though I thoroughly enjoyed the subject.

Missss R is not an imaginary character; she is a very real tall dark lady who'd always have her hair oiled, bun lined with flowers, and not a speck of grey peaking out. With dark eyes boring into the child, she was intimidating and menacing by any standard. This anecdote is also not imaginary, but in fact only a metaphor of what happened several times to several of us in school very often.

One might think this is so common in every school, why is it worth even mentioning here? In fact, one might argue I ought to be glad we were not caned. Precisely for this reason it is pertinent to mention it.

Lots of kids have been running away from their homes, some consciously for a few days; some dangerously clueless for how long. The cops tell us a majority of them are trying to escape because of school pressure. They also believe the kids use this threat of 'running away' as a ploy to arm twist their parents and teachers into not coercing them to study.

I am not sure the reason observed by the cops has been sighted enough for them to generalize. But even if it is not, we ought to pounce on this opportunity to take a hard look at our education system and renew the debate on child behavior with fresh perspectives. Thankfully, the establishment too has its set of doubts about the incumbent system. CBSE has made Board exams optional and Gujarat Board is looking at Semester system for higher secondary education next academic year. We also toyed with open book exams but did not get very far. The good news, however, is that there is now at least a concrete debate that the education system needs a paradigm shift from result based to learning oriented. It's a good start I'd say.

I am not looking at being a child therapist as an alternative career and neither is 'insensitive behaviour with children' a new debate. Every single parent and teacher would have had this discussion very often. Still then, why are we so tactless when dealing with children, especially in school?

Simple acts of being banished from class for no apparent indiscipline, loudly reprimanding a reticent child for stammering his answer in class, mocking the student, are accepted forms or 'teaching'. But for the child, it is traumatic. Teachers and parents are their role models. When smacked by them in front of friends and classmates, it deeply wounds their little self respect and ego. It may not mean much to us adults with so many worldly issues to worry about, but for them, I have come to realize, it means the world - literally.

For instance, I had extremely high regard for Missss R. I actually thought she looked beautiful in oiled hair lined with fresh flowers and garish golden jewellery. After her sharp rebukes, I developed a deep resentment for things that remind me of her, one of them being gold jewellery. I have actually never studied history in a classroom since then. Even back then, I distinctly remember thinking 'cramming' is such a futile exercise. So when I saw the movie 3 Idiots, there was this huge rush of emotion and immense relief at realizing it wasn't me after all, it was 'Missss R'.

The pressure of exams, report cards flaunting only A+; internal marks, competition with classmates for every half a mark, parents' censure at 'foolish mistakes', the other moms' derision and mocking eyes, relatives' regular phone calls - 'so what was her result?'… (sigh) childhood wasn't easy. And guess what, I am told it is much worse these days. School days were great, my schooling was something else.

Haryana Boards exams: Lab attendant is examiner, instructor is centre head

With staffers on examination duty at one centre each in Yamunanagar as well as Ambala districts being allegedly ineligible, the role of education department, especially those responsible for conducting examinations, during Haryana Board of School Education (HBSE) has come under the scanner.

Jai Narain, a lab attendant with the a government senior secondary school of Mandola village in Yamunanagar district, has been found perforiming the duty of examiner in an examination centre being set up in a private school of Mustafabad town of the district.

At the same time, Balwinder Singh, an instructor of government school, who holds the status of a class III employee, was found performing the duty of centre suprintendent, which according to rule book, has to be performed by a senior lecturer of the school or the principal or headmaster/headmistress of schools.

Until some of the examiners doing duty at Mustafabad and government senior secondary school at Shehzadpur sub-division of Ambala, where Balwinder was found acting as centre superintendent, the district education officers (DEOs) have shifted out the two officials, after ordering a probe to ascertain the lapse.

Confirming the development, officials in education department, said that both Jai Narain and Balwinder Singh have been told to appear before the concerned DEOs for further course of action.

The board exam commenced on March 15 and the violation in duty decorum came to the department's notice on March 17 when some teachers informed it about the same.

"Such duty by non-eligible staff is a clear-cut violation of rules as only teachers should be assigned exam duty. Another objectionable point is that the employee, Jai Narain, was deputed in a government school for exam duty and was found on duty at the centre of a private school of the same town. An inquiry has been ordered to find out why did he help the private school," said DEO, Yamunanagar, Jagjit Kaur,

"The employee has been relieved from duties. An eligible candidate will be appointed in his place", she added.

On the other hand, Jai Narain cited notings of education department, under which he, being a senior lab assistant, can work in exam centres.

In Ambala, Balwinder Singh, who is class III level instructor of vocational courses with government schools, was working as centre superintendent at government senior seconday school, Sahazadpur, while a senior school cadre lecturer or school principal is eligible for it. District elementary education officer, Savitri Sihag said, "No doubt a non-eligible candidate was deputed at the centre. This happened due to a mistake while feeding data in the computer, regarding duty allotment. We have marked a detailed inquiry into the incident."

UP board exams: Hindi-medium students get papers in English

Ill-preparedness of the Uttar Pradesh Madhyamik Shikshak Parishad is giving tough time to the students. 

Most of the examinees of Hindi medium were given question papers printed in English and vice versa due to lack of availability of the same at various centres. 

In various incidents, the Board examinees had a tough time in writing their particular papers as the language was not properly understood by them. 

It was learnt that over 50 students of Har Gopal Inter College of Hindi medium got question paper in English, while several students of Hindi medium DMK Inter College were also given question paper in English for their math exam. They were just 10 minutes' extra time to compensate for the inconvenience. 

Similarly more than 30 students of Fair Committee School, who were from English medium, were given the question papers in Hindi language. 

"The students were at the receiving end of the most irresponsible behaviour of the UP Board authorities. Though they somehow solved the whole question paper, it was a difficult task for them to understand a language they were not well-versed in. Hence, we are apprehensive of their result," said the principal of a reputed school on condition of anonymity. 

Meanwhile, DIOS SS Singh, when asked about the whole issue, held the school authorities responsible for the matter. "The papers were given by the Board according to the medium filled by the school authorities in the examination form. In no way are we responsible for the inconvenience to the students," he claimed. 

"This problem of the medium of question papers has become a routine affair now as no one among the Board authorities or the school authorities are ready to take the responsibility," the DIOS pointed out. 

Applied Hindi to be optional for HSC pupils

Mumbai: The state government has cleared a proposal to introduce Applied Hindi as an optional subject for HSC students from the academic year 2013-14 so that language too becomes a scoring subject.School education minister Rajendra Darda has cleared the file that sought administrative approval for introduction of Applied Hindi as an optional subject for Class XII (HSC) students, a senior education department official said.

The Marathi or Hindi subject syllabus primarily focuses on literature.Finding it difficult to score high in language subjects,most students prefer giving more attention on other subjects to build up the aggregate percentage.Introduction of Applied Marathi and Hindi will change students traditional approach towards the language.Also,the introduction of applied subject will help students acquire job-oriented skills, said Prakash Parab,head of the department,Marathi department,Vaze Kelkar College,Mumbai.

Deepak Pawar,president of Marathi Abhyas Kendra,said,Ideally,Marathi should be first and English should be the second language for the board syllabus.But if the government is insisting on English to be the first language then the state should make Marathi as the second language. However,a senior DF minister said,Religion,caste,community and such issues should not be the parameters while making education-related policies.