Board fails to print Std 11 question bank
Despite promising to print question banks for Class 11 science by mid-September, Gujarat State School Textbook Board fails to print them; Angry parents allege that the board is involved in a conspiracy to profit private publishers
Yogesh Avasthi
Posted On Monday, October 24, 2011 (http://www.ahmedabadmirror.com/article/3/2011102420111024021632391b109836e/Board-fails-to-print-Std-11-question-bank.html)
Gujarat State School Textbook Board (GSSTB) had proudly announced that it was putting together sets of self-assessment papers (swadhyay-pothi) for class XI students to help them prepare for semester exams introduced this year.
The officials had assured that the reasonably priced question banks would be available for sale by mid-September.
September came and went. Students, too, are done with their first semester exams. Still, the textbook board’s question banks are nowhere in sight.
N D Trivedi, sales officer of Gujarat State Textbook Board’s Ahmedabad operations, said, “I don’t know why the question banks have not been printed. Now that the first semester exams are over, it doesn’t matter whether they are printed or not.”
And what about the promise made? Nikhil Shah, parent of a class 11 student said, “This was the first time that Gujarat board was conducting semester examinations for class XI. The papers were to be a mix of objective and subjective questions. I wanted to get practice papers and reference material for my child. When the textbook board announced that it would print question banks in the semester-paper format, I was relieved. But they ditched us.”
“Surprisingly, question banks by private publications were available easily. Three such question banks cost me around Rs 450, twice the price announced by GSSTB. I had no choice but to buy those,” he added.
According to sources, the first semester question banks for mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology had been prepared by experts and submitted to the GSSTB in the second week of August.
One of the experts who helped in putting together the self-assessment books said on condition of anonymity said, “It took us more than two months to prepare the question banks. Questions were devised to ensure that the subject is covered in its entirety. Each set contained multiple choice questions worth 70 marks and short-answer questions carrying 30 marks.”
“We had submitted the materials for English and Gujarati medium by the second week of August. I am clueless why the board failed to print the material or make it available in the market,” he added.
More than 1.2 lakh class XI students had appeared for the first semester exams which got over last week. The GSSTB was supposed to print over 4.5 lakh copies of question banks by September. However, Mirror correspondent could not find GSSTB question banks at any of the stationery or book stores he visited. He was instead offered self-assessment books published by private firms.
“I suspect that textbook board officials and private publishers are hand-in-glove in what looks like a scam. The matter should be probed into. There are several students who cannot afford to buy costly books and had to suffer because the promised question banks were not available,” said Yogesh Mishra, a parent.
Depot director Haresh Limbachiya, incharge of the distribution of question banks, said that the books had been printed and were available in the market. “We have already printed the question banks and these are available everywhere.” When the correspondent told him that that the sales manager at the depot office had informed him that the books were not available, Limbachiya remarked, “That is because he does not understand English.”
Yogesh Avasthi
Posted On Monday, October 24, 2011 (http://www.ahmedabadmirror.com/article/3/2011102420111024021632391b109836e/Board-fails-to-print-Std-11-question-bank.html)
Gujarat State School Textbook Board (GSSTB) had proudly announced that it was putting together sets of self-assessment papers (swadhyay-pothi) for class XI students to help them prepare for semester exams introduced this year.
The officials had assured that the reasonably priced question banks would be available for sale by mid-September.
September came and went. Students, too, are done with their first semester exams. Still, the textbook board’s question banks are nowhere in sight.
N D Trivedi, sales officer of Gujarat State Textbook Board’s Ahmedabad operations, said, “I don’t know why the question banks have not been printed. Now that the first semester exams are over, it doesn’t matter whether they are printed or not.”
And what about the promise made? Nikhil Shah, parent of a class 11 student said, “This was the first time that Gujarat board was conducting semester examinations for class XI. The papers were to be a mix of objective and subjective questions. I wanted to get practice papers and reference material for my child. When the textbook board announced that it would print question banks in the semester-paper format, I was relieved. But they ditched us.”
“Surprisingly, question banks by private publications were available easily. Three such question banks cost me around Rs 450, twice the price announced by GSSTB. I had no choice but to buy those,” he added.
According to sources, the first semester question banks for mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology had been prepared by experts and submitted to the GSSTB in the second week of August.
One of the experts who helped in putting together the self-assessment books said on condition of anonymity said, “It took us more than two months to prepare the question banks. Questions were devised to ensure that the subject is covered in its entirety. Each set contained multiple choice questions worth 70 marks and short-answer questions carrying 30 marks.”
“We had submitted the materials for English and Gujarati medium by the second week of August. I am clueless why the board failed to print the material or make it available in the market,” he added.
More than 1.2 lakh class XI students had appeared for the first semester exams which got over last week. The GSSTB was supposed to print over 4.5 lakh copies of question banks by September. However, Mirror correspondent could not find GSSTB question banks at any of the stationery or book stores he visited. He was instead offered self-assessment books published by private firms.
“I suspect that textbook board officials and private publishers are hand-in-glove in what looks like a scam. The matter should be probed into. There are several students who cannot afford to buy costly books and had to suffer because the promised question banks were not available,” said Yogesh Mishra, a parent.
Depot director Haresh Limbachiya, incharge of the distribution of question banks, said that the books had been printed and were available in the market. “We have already printed the question banks and these are available everywhere.” When the correspondent told him that that the sales manager at the depot office had informed him that the books were not available, Limbachiya remarked, “That is because he does not understand English.”
