In an initiative to reduce wastage of paper, the state government in 2014, decided to issue ruled answer sheets for Class 12 board exams for language and English papers. However, this step introduced by the directorate of government examinations (DGE) seems to have produced little or no result as paper wastage continues to remain the same over the past five years. An RTI response from the department of stationery and printing (it prints answer booklets for board exams) revealed that wastage of paper in both SSLC and higher secondary board exams still stands at 2%.
DGE said the handwriting of students tend to slant when they write on unruled sheets, therefore, taking up a lot of space. "Since 2008, the number of students writing SSLC and higher secondary exams has almost doubled. Therefore, the need for papers has also gone up. So, we thought that introducing ruled paper for exams may help reduce wastage as well as costs," said a DGE official.
Director of government examinations, K Devarajan said, "We found that Anna University and CBSE also use ruled paper for their examinations. So, we thought we will introduce the system for our board exams too."
A senior DGE official said, "The problem is with the number of pages used for printing the main booklet -- 30 pages for higher secondary exam and 22 for SSLC. While some students don't fill up all the pages, there are others who think that if they write more, they will score more," said the official. Sources said they will analyse the possibility of using ruled paper for subjects like history, social science, geography, economics, commerce and computer science.
A government school computer science teacher said, "We can save paper if the number of pages of the main booklet is reduced. Perhaps, there can be 20 pages for higher secondary and 12 pages for SSLC."
A Coimbatore-based student, who wrote Class 12 board exam this year, said, "I found ruled answer booklets useful as it helped me write in straight lines, and improved my presentation. I also managed to write my answers using lesser number of pages when compared to my term exams in school."
DGE said the handwriting of students tend to slant when they write on unruled sheets, therefore, taking up a lot of space. "Since 2008, the number of students writing SSLC and higher secondary exams has almost doubled. Therefore, the need for papers has also gone up. So, we thought that introducing ruled paper for exams may help reduce wastage as well as costs," said a DGE official.
Director of government examinations, K Devarajan said, "We found that Anna University and CBSE also use ruled paper for their examinations. So, we thought we will introduce the system for our board exams too."
A senior DGE official said, "The problem is with the number of pages used for printing the main booklet -- 30 pages for higher secondary exam and 22 for SSLC. While some students don't fill up all the pages, there are others who think that if they write more, they will score more," said the official. Sources said they will analyse the possibility of using ruled paper for subjects like history, social science, geography, economics, commerce and computer science.
A government school computer science teacher said, "We can save paper if the number of pages of the main booklet is reduced. Perhaps, there can be 20 pages for higher secondary and 12 pages for SSLC."
A Coimbatore-based student, who wrote Class 12 board exam this year, said, "I found ruled answer booklets useful as it helped me write in straight lines, and improved my presentation. I also managed to write my answers using lesser number of pages when compared to my term exams in school."
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