Belgaum: The Karnataka Secondary School Employees' Association has criticised the examination pattern evolved during the term of former Minister for Primary and Secondary Education R. Ramalinga Reddy, as it discouraged creativity and writing abilities among students.

Addressing presspersons here on Saturday, association's district convenor S.S. Mathad said the new pattern of the examination for SSLC, which was introduced all over the State in March this year, would not help in proper evaluation of the intellectual faculties of students.

He said according to the new pattern, a student was required to answer objective questions for 60 marks and write answers only for 40 marks. Thus, it is apparent that a student hereafter would not concentrate much on improving his answer-writing (or writing) abilities and look for quick and short-cut routes, he said.

Mr. Mathad said the issue, along with other issues and problems confronting teaching and non-teaching staff in schools imparting secondary education, would be taken up for discussion during the one-day district level conference of the association scheduled to be held in the city on August 28. The association would press the Karnataka Secondary Education Board to adopt PU Board pattern while setting examination papers and scrap the new pattern for SSLC examination.

Leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party, including K. Balakrishna Bhat and Mukhyamantri Chandru, had opposed the new SSLC examination pattern observing that it would encourage mass copying on the one hand and would result in students ignoring the art of writing on the other.

Yet, the Government went ahead with the pattern and said it was aimed at preparing the students for competitive examinations in future.

But, such a pattern would be helpful if adopted at Pre-University level, Mr. Mathad said.

He said the Government was ignoring to improve basic infrastructure in schools, particularly in rural areas.

That apart, since yoga has now been included as part of physical education curriculum, the Government should introduce meditation classes for the overall and spiritual development of the children, he said.

He said the conference would be inaugurated by Minister for Primary and Secondary Education Basavaraj Horatti. Three sessions would be held on "SSLC examination," "Administrative problems" and "New experiments for improving results."

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