Two senses of முடிவு, and a question the passage never answers
A Class 9 half-yearly paper in Palakkad has a 120-word unseen passage about a village that revived a dried pond. Two sentences matter: 'ஊர்மக்கள் ஒன்று கூடி முடிவு எடுத்தனர்' and 'குளத்தின் முடிவில் ஒரு சிறு தூண் இருந்தது'. Five one-mark questions follow. Q2 asks for the meaning of முடிவு in the passage; the key says 'முடிவு = decision'. Q4 asks 'குளம் வற்றியதற்குக் காரணம் என்ன?', but the passage never gives a cause - it says only that the pond had been dry for eleven years. Eight students answered Q4 with 'மழை இல்லாததால்', which is true in the world but absent from the text; they scored zero and their parents have complained. Twelve students wrote 'முடிவு = end' in Q2 and lost the mark. Forty-six scripts must be re-marked before Friday's PTA, and the key has to be defended without disturbing the paper's total of 25 marks.
1. What do you do with Q4 and with the eight scripts? Show the reasoning that keeps the total at 25.
Read the worked answer
Diagnosis first. The eight students are not wrong about the world; they are answering a question the passage does not set. Q4 asks for a cause, the text supplies no cause, so there is no text-based answer that any student could have found. That makes it a faulty item, not a student error.
Consequence for marking. A faulty item cannot discriminate, and it cannot be marked correct-for-some and wrong-for-others, because the 'correct' answer does not exist in the passage. So it must be all-or-none. Of the two all-or-none routes, cancelling the item and deleting its mark would drop the total to 24 and force a re-scaling of every other item, which is worse for everyone. Award the 1 mark to all 46 students; the paper's total stays 25 and no other item is touched.
Defence at the PTA. Say exactly that, in one sentence: 'The question asked for something the passage does not state, so we removed it and gave the mark to every child.' Then show the replacement item, so parents see that the skill is still being tested. Blaming the eight children would be indefensible, because the item, not their reading, produced the zero.
Note for the department: keep a note in the question file that an inference item is legitimate only when the passage contains the clue that licenses the inference, and that the phrase 'உணர்த்தப்படுகிறது' must be used when an inference is wanted.
2. Decide what happens to the twelve students who wrote 'முடிவு = end', and state the rule you would write into the question-setting guidelines.
Read the worked answer
Both senses are real. முடிவு means 'end' in 'குளத்தின் முடிவில்' and 'decision' in 'முடிவு எடுத்தனர்'. The twelve students gave a valid dictionary sense of the word - just not the sense of the sentence the paper had in mind. The fault is the item's, because it asked for 'the meaning of முடிவு in the passage' while two senses of the word actually occur in the passage.
Fair handling: since the item as printed cannot separate the two senses, void it and award the mark to all, exactly as for Q4. Alternatively, if the school insists on keeping one item, accept both answers and cap the paper accordingly - but that teaches students that context does not matter, which is the opposite of what an unseen-comprehension section is for. Voiding is the cleaner lesson.
Rules for the setting file:
- Never ask for the meaning of an isolated word. Quote the phrase and the line number: 'முடிவு எடுத்தனர் (வரி 4) என்பதில் முடிவு என்பதன் பொருள் யாது?' A student cannot then answer with a sense the quoted phrase cannot carry ('you cannot எடு an end').
- Check the passage for a second occurrence of the word before finalising the item.
- Let the key name the sense, not just the synonym: 'முடிவு = தீர்மானம் (ஒன்று கூடி எடுத்த முடிவு)'.
Both Q2 and Q4 therefore become grace marks, which is why the re-marking can be finished in one sitting instead of case by case.
3. Rewrite Q4 as a fair comprehension item and say why your replacement tests reading rather than general knowledge.
Read the worked answer
Replacement: 'குளம் எத்தனை ஆண்டுகள் வற்றியிருந்தது?' (எண்ணை எழுதுக.)
Why it is fair: the answer - பதினொரு ஆண்டுகள் - is in the text and nowhere else. A student who has read the passage can find it; a student who has only general knowledge about dry ponds cannot invent it. That is the definition of a comprehension item.
A second, harder replacement if inference is wanted: 'குளத்தை மீட்ட பிறகு ஊரில் ஏற்பட்ட மாற்றம் யாது?' This one is inferential but licensed, because the passage describes the change; the answer is checkable against a stated line, not against the child's experience of the world.
Contrast with the original Q4: 'குளம் வற்றியதற்குக் காரணம் என்ன?' could only be answered from general knowledge, so it measured general knowledge and rewarded confident guessing. Keep both replacement types in the file - one factual, one licensed inference - and mark the inference items with the line that licenses them, so that the next setter can see the standard rather than being told about it.