Maharashtra: Omitted syllabus appears in SSC, HSC question banks

The state education department’s recent move of releasing question banks for Class 10 and 12 students has not gone down well with many students and parents who say the question bank has served to increase confusion.

On Monday, the education department released the subject-wise question bank for state board aspirants on its official website (maa.ac.in). The department said this was done to help students who will write their secondary school certificate (SSC) and higher secondary school (HSC) certificate exams, which will be held between April and May.

However, several students have pointed out discrepancies in the question bank. Many said the question bank contains questions on topics that were omitted after the education department reduced the syllabus by 25% last year. “There are several questions from omitted topics and the entire material consists of questions on each topic and theme. What is the point of the question bank if it is not different from the existing study material?” asked a student.

Parents said students felt more unsure about what to expect in their exams. “Now they don’t know whether to study from the questions given or from the textbook. The department should have instead marked a few topics as important so that students would have accordingly studied,” said a Borivali-based parent of a Class 12 student.

Officials from the education department did not respond to calls and messages. A senior official said the department will release more papers in the coming days and the questions should only be considered guidelines.

The Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE) will conduct HSC (Class 12) examinations between April 23 and May 29. SSC (Class 10) examinations will be held between April 29 and May 31. Due to the pandemic and resultant lockdown, the education department has announced a 25% reduction in the syllabus for Classes 1 to 12, for the current academic year.