Ghaziabad school exams in disarray: Questions, typos copy-pasted from previous year

GHAZIABAD: Govt school students appearing for final primary class exams were a flustered lot after the question papers for different subjects turned out to be almost identical to the year before despite a change in syllabus for 2024-25 academic session.
For instance, the Class 2 paper for Hindi included questions of chapters from the older textbook.

"Generally, the names of books are written on the question paper besides the subject. Students are now being taught from a book titled 'Sarangi', but the question paper mentioned 'Kishalay', the older book. The questions were also the same as the previous year," a teacher at a primary school in Modinagar told TOI on Wednesday.
Similarly, mistakes made on question papers in the 2023-24 academic session made their way into the latest exams. A principal of a primary school in Ghaziabad gave the example of the Class 5 social science paper.
"The papers are exactly the same - questions, markings and even the errors. Last year, there was an error in a multiple-choice question, which asked: 'What was the first domesticated animal of human beings?'. The options given were cow, goat, horse and elephant. Teachers were told to add 'dog' to the paper last year. And this year too, it was the same error," the principal said.
In some cases, the teachers said, they could only observe syntax changes in the papers. "Almost 60% of the syllabus, especially stories and poems, are different. For example, in Class 2's Hindi paper, a question was asked from the lesson 'Tappa ka Darr'. This chapter was not included in 'Sarangi'. It was in the older book, 'Kishalay'," another teacher said.
A third teacher alleged that this practice wasn't new. "Question papers have been repeated for the past three years. Till last year (2023-24), the syllabus was the same, so it did not cause a lot of problems," she said.
A Class 5 student said the syllabus taught in school wasn't there at all. "When teachers cross checked the paper, they told us it is the same paper as last year's. I tried to attempt some answers, and the teachers helped us with some others," the boy said.
In Noida, teachers said the question papers for final exams were not similar to the previous years, but there were some out-of-syllabus.
"In Class 5, a maths question was from the Class 8 syllabus. However, there was no major issue," a teacher said.
Education department officials said question papers for primary classes are prepared by teachers of the District Institute of Education and Training (DIET). Each district has its own question papers, which are printed by the basic education department.
"The questions are prepared by DIET teachers from respective departments. An inquiry will be launched soon to look into the matter," said Jitendra Malik, principal of DIET, Ghaziabad.
OP Yadav of district basic education department said he has taken up. "The matter has been discussed with DIET officials as questions are being prepared by them. Further action will be decided soon," Yadav said.