It has been more than a decade since the launch of the creative question pattern in the national curriculum. Creative questions were a blessing for most of the students as they focused less on memorising answers to specific problems. Rather it enabled students to practice their creativity and critical thinking to analyse a given situation-based problem.
Ishrat Jahan Mim, a student of class 11 at Lalmatia Mohila College, said, "Since childhood, I have not enjoyed memorising lessons. Creative questions are a lot better as I can answer them by voicing my own opinion."
The students can now answer using their own logic. That was the very purpose of introducing creative questions in the curriculum. The answers can be different but the logic and thinking behind the answers are to be evaluated. However, it was not always this way. Creative questions came a long way through trial, error, and training.
"At our time we had most of our questions directly from guidebooks. We just memorised and followed guidebooks. There was nothing creative about it," said Abdullah Al Soad who completed his SSC in 2015 from the science group.
Each creative question has four types of sub-questions. The types are knowledge, understanding, application, and higher skill. In general mathematics or the creative method of higher mathematics, there are three question types-- understanding, applied and highly efficient. The students are instructed to answer the questions with the help of a stem and use the theories mentioned in the textbooks.
Before 2017, students had to answer six creative questions in two hours and 10 minutes which was later changed to seven creative questions in two hours and 30 minutes. The decision to answer seven creative questions was highly criticised by students all around the country mainly because of the time constraints that came with it.
"Creative questions in maths are fine. However, seven creative questions in subjects like Bangla is not acceptable. If the students cannot properly answer due to the shortage of time, what's the point of giving seven creative questions in the first place?" asked Jawad Anis Swanon who completed HSC in 2018 from the science group.
In recent times, the Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ) system is facing some unpleasant remarks. The numbers allotted for MCQs were reduced, whereas some people are completely against it requesting the cancellation of MCQs overall. However, there are a lot of international level tests like IELTS, SAT, TOEFL, GRE, GMAT, etc. which use MCQs. MCQs are needed for covering the whole syllabus. So, applying MCQs in situation based questions can ensure the proper use of students' critical thinking ability.
There are still a few drawbacks to this system. Emphasising a more structured salary, Md Sohel Miya, assistant headmaster of Haji Ashraf Ali High School located at East Shewrapara, Dhaka said, "The salary of teachers is not that lucrative. It is not enough to support a family. So, teachers are always looking for sources of extra income which is taking up most of their time. Thus, they are not getting sufficient time to research the content for making better creative questions."
There are initiatives yet to be implemented to ban guidebooks, private tuitions, and coaching centres. However, that is not possible without training the teachers on conducting classes. The teachers also needed to be trained on marking answer scripts. While creative questions are supposed to be answered 'to the point' and with no 'extra words', some teachers tend to give good marks only when they see an answering script full of writing. A few even give marks counting the pages of an answering script. So, providing training for the head examiners, other examiners, and moderators are also a must especially in the rural areas where guidebooks are popular due to the lack of skilled teachers.
Creative questions have seen significant changes over the years and have been the recipient of both positive and negative feedback. With yet another reform of having no board exam prior to SSC from 2023, we may witness a new look in the creative question structure. Time will tell whether it is for the better or the worse.
The writer is a student of Mass Communication and Journalism at BUP.
rabbi.zahidur@gmail.com