Journalism of Courage
The Maharashtra State Council of Examination will be revising the examination pattern of high school scholarship examination (class VII) from next year,informed Shridhar Salunkhe,chairman of the council,on Monday. In a bid to prepare students for competitive exams like CET and declare the scholarship examination results in 40 days,the council will use optical mark recognition (OMR) system to assess the papers. Eventually,all questions in the high school scholarship examination will be of objective type from next year,he said.
Every year,over 40,000 students from Pune district appear for the high school scholarship examination,which is of 300 marks. There are three subjectslanguage,mathematics and aptitude. At present,except a 20-mark essay in language paper,all other questions are of objective type.
The essay had to be written on a different sheet which was assessed separately. Now,students will not have to write an essay,instead they will be asked objective questions on a passage, said Salunkhe.
The time taken to assess the essay delays the overall result. Now,as all the questions will be of objective type,we can use OMR system for assessment,which will not only be transparent but fast also, he said.
Though the scholarship examination is conducted at the end of February,results are declared in July. By that time academic year changes. The objective behind introducing this new system is to provide the results of scholarship examination in the same academic year, said council commissioner Sarjerao Jadhav.
It will also help students get scholarship amount at the commencement of the academic year in July or August unlike in December at present.
According to Jadhav,students will only have to fill the circles of right answers with pencil or black pen. The process will be helpful to students as it will prepare them for other competitive examinations where such method is followed, he said.
