The "very tough" Class 12 CBSE mathematics question paper that saw many students in tears on Thursday figured in parliament, with a Congress member asking the government to consider the issue "seriously". Students and teachers demanded that the board again hold the exam.
Raising the issue during zero hour, K.V. Thomas, the Congress member from Ernakulam in Kerala, said the maths exam will affect the future of many students in the country.
"The government should take it seriously. In future, when question papers are being set, efforts should be made to rope in experienced and senior people," he said.
Many students who took the Class 12 math exam and their teachers said Wednesday's question paper was of "IIT entrance level".
"The mathematics exam was very tough. The questions asked in the exam were not direct. It was way beyond our level and was equivalent to the IIT-JEE test," said Somil Pahuja, who could not attempt many of the questions.
Somil said the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) should re-conduct the exam.
Vertika Mishra said most students came out from the exam hall crying.
"All of us were left depressed after taking the exam. We are now very skeptical of doing well, though maths is my favourite subject and I always score well," Vertika told IANS.
"I don't think I shall be able to score more than 50 percent in the paper," she said.
Vertika also demanded that the CBSE board conduct the examination again.
Teachers too said the exam was very difficult in comparison to previous years' tests, and that their students were very upset.
"The paper was tough. Most of the students could not attempt it well and are depressed. The pattern of the questions asked in the exam was way different from the normal pattern of CBSE. Either CBSE should conduct the exam again or adopt a liberal attitude during evaluation of the answer sheets," mathematics teacher Rakesh Sharma told IANS.
A CBSE spokesperson said the board had not yet thought in terms of re-conducting the maths exam.
"CBSE has not yet clarified whether they would re-conduct the exam. Like every year, the paper was set from the book (NCERT). The pattern of the paper was a little changed this year," spokesperson Ishaan told IANS.
According to students and teachers, this year's mathematics paper had around 50 percent of questions based on Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS), compared to earlier years when it was around 10-20 percent.
