First-ever exams with centralised question paper begin in Tripura

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Speaking to reporters, Education Minister Ratan Lal Nath said, “This is the first time in the history of Tripura that exams across the state are being conducted with a centralised question paper. Exams of English started from 9 am today for classes 3 to 5 across 4,500 government and government-aided schools. Exams of the classes 6 to 9 standards have commenced from 1 pm.”

The minister also said that the syllabi are in place but the new system will need students to study every subject thoroughly and gain insight to write answers to all questions on their own.

“Students should be able to answer all questions on their own. This is what is called intellect. Great souls of this country have shown us the way. So, we have started a centralised question paper in Tripura. We are confident to get good results from this initiative in future,” the minister informed.

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Since the BJP-IPFT government was formed in March 2018, a host of reforms were adopted in the state education system, including revising recruitment rules of teachers, replacing state textbooks with NCERT, introducing CBSE exam pattern, special coaching for backward students, summer schools for capacity building of students and now, a system for setting centralised question papers.

In an effort to assess true educational status of students studying in different schools of the state, Tripura’s ruling BJP-IPFT announced ‘Notun Disha’ (New Direction) aimed to best equip students from class 3 to 8, in February this year. It involved an educational assessment on each student of the state from class 3-8 between February 25 and 28 this year.

Baseline Survey reports under Notun Disha scheme revealed that 57 per cent of students studying between Class 3-8 is unable to read words, sentences or even solve basic arithmetic such as addition or subtractions. A total of 3.16 lakh students were surveyed under the scheme. Among them, 1.80 lakh ‘weak’ students were identified and a separate database was prepared on them for providing supplementary coaching.

The Education Minister has reasoned that introducing a centralised question paper for all schools will facilitate uniformity in conducting school examinations.