The General Education department has barred 12 higher secondary Chemistry teachers from preparing question papers and answer schemes for five years.
The order comes in the wake of the department finding that the answer scheme for the Plus Two Chemistry question paper of the 2022 annual examinations prepared during the scheme finalisation held in Ernakulam could lead to students getting more marks than they deserved. However, the department order does not mention any action against the teacher who is said to have prepared the question paper and its answer scheme that reportedly contained anomalies.
A controversy had surrounded the valuation of the Chemistry answer scripts after teachers boycotted the valuation camps and the department warned of disciplinary action against them. The Chemistry teachers had alleged that the question paper was tough and confusing. For instance, a question did not provide any correct options as answers. Following this, an answer scheme was prepared by 12 teachers during the scheme finalisation but when the teachers reached valuation camps for answer script valuation, a different answer scheme was waiting for them. The teachers then boycotted valuation seeking that the answer scheme prepared during scheme finalised be used for valuation.
Teachers’ organisations alleged that Minister for General Education V. Sivankutty was being misled on the issue after he denied that there were any anomalies in the scheme provided at the valuation camps. They also pointed out anomalies in the question paper and questioned why an answer scheme prepared by a teacher who had set a question paper containing errors should be favoured against that prepared by a group of experienced teachers.
The department, meanwhile, found that unlike the answer scheme prepared by the question paper setter, the answer scheme prepared by the 12 teachers was too liberal and issued them a show-cause notice.
The teachers’ protests forced the Minister to intervene and set up a 15-member committee, which included college teachers, to look into both the schemes and prepare a new one. As the new scheme found favour with the teachers unlike the one published by the government, the valuation of answer scripts resumed.
However, the department started disciplinary proceedings against the 12 teachers. As it found their replies to the show-cause notice similar, the teachers were chargesheeted.
The teachers said since they prepared the answer scheme together, they replied to the show-cause notice after mutual discussions. They also apologised saying nothing harmful was intended and it was not done deliberately.
However, the department found fault with the preparation of the answer scheme by the teachers despite clear instructions being issued to them. As the answer scheme prepared by the 12 teachers was not used for valuation and they had apologised, it barred them from setting question papers and preparing answer schemes for five years and warned them against violating the department’s directions in future.
However, the department order does not mention any action against the teacher who prepared the question paper and the answer scheme, despite the former General Education Principal Secretary A.P.M. Mohammed Hanish’s assurance that an inquiry would look into all aspects of the answer key preparation to prevent recurrence of such incidents.
