No Board question papers in Urdu,Sindhi and Marathi from next year

The circular originates from an Education Department’s GR dated May 3,2011,which amended rule 20 of the Secondary and Higher Secondary Examination (amended) Rules,2005. As per this amendment,all SSC students shall be given question papers in Gujarati,Hindi or English only. This will be implemented from the next SSC Board examination in March 2012,the communication says.

The students who would be impacted by the new decision are mainly of Urdu,Sindhi and Marathi mediums. Those from Tamil,Telugu and Oriya mediums are already being given question papers in Gujarati-Hindi-English set. “This will deny a level-playing field to nearly 6,000 students,” said a school principal,who cautioned against the move saying flow of students to the mediums other than Hindi,Gujarati and English was already drying up.

Board’s secretary G M Rabari said the decision would prevent question papers from being leaked. Other Board officials cited lack of staff to justify the move. A senior Board official in Vadodara said the number of students in mediums other than Gujarati,Hindi and English was relatively quite small. “For the paucity of staff,same set of people translate original question papers in other languages every year and thus the confidentiality is compromised,” he said.

The official admitted that a representation from Urdu schools had been made so far.