Reshma Ravishanker

Chemistry lecturers and students have approached the Karnataka Secondary Examination and Assessment Board (KSEAB) anxious over the unacceptable level of difficulty of the Chemistry Preuniversity board exam question paper.

As part of the ongoing PU board exams, students appeared for chemistry exams on March 14, Tuesday. This was followed by social media discussions and concerns among lecturers over students’ performance.

A lecturer from a forum of chemistry lecturers in the state, which has over 2,500 members, said that they submitted representations to the board seeking justice for students.

“There were no out of syllabus questions. But, as lecturers, we noticed that the pattern was not the way it was to be. Ideally, while setting a paper, 80 % must be direct questions or those which can be answered easily. The other 20% is application based. What happened this year was the exact opposite. We approached the board on behalf of students as we thought it was grave injustice to them,” said a lecturer.

Lecturers also expressed concerns over the question paper being set in a manner ignoring the blueprint. “There is a lot of difference between the final exam paper and model papers for students. The blueprint has not been followed either,” said the lecturer.

Students who appeared for exams expressed concerns as well. “Our futures are at stake, and we do not see a reasonable solution for this issue. Giving us grace marks will not help. For a state board student who has studied every corner of the textbook, it is still unfair. Some of these are from CBSE class 12 level exams,” said Sumana, one of the students.

One of the students took to social media to ask other students to submit a memorandum to chief minister Basavaraj Bommai and the post read: “The question paper was designed in a way that it violated the rules of the PU Board and is very different from model paper/blueprint. I would request you to kindly consider a re-examination for the same.”

Meanwhile, the director of KSEAB was unavailable for comments.