UP govt prepares question banks for students

Prayagraj (UP) : In a first, the Uttar Pradesh (UP) basic education department has prepared question banks for more than 25 lakh students of classes 9 and 10 studying in more than 27,000 schools affiliated with the UP Board.

These question banks aim to enhance students’ preparation for competitive examinations such as engineering and medical entrances.

The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), New Delhi, along with the State Institute of Science Education (SISE) and subject experts from select universities, colleges, and secondary schools, has jointly prepared these question banks for science and mathematics, according to officials of the state secondary education department.

Former state project director of Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan, Vijay Kiran Anand, had entrusted the responsibility of creating the question banks to the State Science Education Institute, Prayagraj, officials said. Manjusha Gupta, the science coordinator at SISE-Prayagraj, said that 12 and 13 chapters had been included in the science question bank of classes 9 and 10, respectively.

Each chapter comprised around 70 questions, including various multiple choices, very short, short, and long answer questions of cognitive, perceptual, applicational, and skill types. Thus, there was a compilation of about 840 questions for class 9 and another 910 questions for class 10 students, she said.

All the questions in the question bank will reinforce the vital concepts of science in the students, and they will be able to understand and practice them automatically, she said.

SISE-Prayagraj’s mathematics coordinator, Arvind Kumar Gautam, said that the mathematics question bank for classes 9 and 10 consisted of 12 and 14 chapters, respectively. There was a compilation of approximately 912 questions for class 9 and 1,064 questions for class 10 students. At the beginning of each type of question, sample questions had also been given to generate interest among the students, he added. The question banks prepared based on the NCERT syllabus have been sent by SISE-Prayagraj to the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) of Uttar Pradesh in Lucknow.

They are expected to become available to students soon. At present, only question banks prepared and published by private publishers are available in the market. These question banks aim to provide practice opportunities to achieve desired teaching-learning outcomes and assist students in succeeding in exams. Undoubtedly, these exercises will help clarify concepts among students and enhance their understanding of the subjects.