GUWAHATI: The Board of Secondary Education Assam (Seba) will go ahead with its plan to conduct this year’s Class X examination beginning Tuesday with last year’s unused question papers despite large-scale criticism about using ‘old papers’. The second wave of Covid-19 had stalled the conduct of the Class X and XII board examinations in 2021.
Board sources have maintained that the use of the old question papers is an attempt to cut down on costs. “Since the question papers were stocked in secured places and the course curriculum has not changed, we will not replace the question papers printed for 2021 Class X board examination,” said Seba secretary Naranarayan Nath.
He said, this year too, the Class X boards will be based on a syllabus with a 40% cut since students missed offline classes for months. Examinations will be held in 903 centres, which is an increase of 25 centres. A total 4.31 lakh students are registered for the examination.
The Class XII state board examination will also commence on Tuesday with 2.15 lakh registered students appearing from 796 exam centres. Assam Higher Secondary Education Council (AHSEC) controller of examinations, Pankaj Borthakur, however, said for the Class XII boards, they have not given any scope for controversy. Last year, the Class XII boards were supposed to be held with a 30% curtailed syllabus. But this year cent per cent syllabus is being covered so that the students can prepare for the national-level entrance examinations. Borthakur said ample alternate options will be given to the students in each paper so that their performance is not affected by the loss of offline classes.
