My letter to CBSE on 8 April 2013

My letter to Mr. Arora written on 8 April 2013

Dear Mr Arora

While I am immensely grateful to the Hon. HRD Minister for considering the issue raised in my letter of 4 March 2013 to him and referring the matter to the CBSE, I thank you for your letter of 3 April 2013 emailed to me on the 4^th of April.

With regard to your first point that it is an established CBSE practice not to change the text (even if it is grammatically wrong) if the source is explicitly mentioned, I beg to differ. What is the use of carrying on with a practice if it ruins the English of one whole new generation of India—the future of our country. However, if the CBSE wants to continue it, there is a solution in the English language practices: just write sic immediately after the error and bracket it—like [sic]—to caution the reader about an inherent error without changing the original text. Example:

‘The school is proud of it's [sic] record of excellence’. [OALD]

While you concede Error 3 pointed out by me, you assert that your ‘more than 10 language experts’ did not find fault with the framing of question papers. This means that these experts do not find anything wrong in the expression ‘You are interested in disposing it of as you …’ in question 3—in spite of the three examples quoted by me from authentic sources. I am credited with a number of corrections in the renowned Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary and a couple of other dictionaries, but I like to describe myself merely as a ‘learner of English’. Your language experts should have the humility to learn new things. If my examples do not satisfy them then the following will probably:

Soon after I received your letter I wrote to the world-renowned linguist, Mr. Michael Quinion (noted for his substantial work on the production of Oxford dictionaries). The following are my query and his brief note in reply:

“Sorry to bother you once again, Mr. Quinion. Please let me know if the following
sentence in an Indian exam paper is correct or incorrect: "You own a
 house, but you want to dispose it of as you are going to settle abroad."
Personally I think it should be "... but you want to dispose of it as..."

For me, your version is correct and the other is definitely wrong. I don't
know of any regional version of English in which it would be acceptable.

--
Michael Quinion
Editor, World Wide Words
Web: http://www.worldwidewords.org

If your language experts are still not convinced, send them to British Council at 17, Kasturba Gandhi Marg, New Delhi to check with them. If your ‘more than 10 language experts’ are still not impressed enough, it is high time the CBSE replaced its team of language experts with those ones who have a better sense of ethic and integrity and are not victims of self-delusion.

Certainly, I pointed out a few other errors which are minor, viz. one-act-play, etc—they are errors nevertheless.

I never suggested to the Hon. HRD Minister the idea of sending the papers abroad for vetting. First of all, there is a difference between vetting and checking texts for language errors. Secondly, in this electronic age sending written texts abroad is as simple as your forwarding my mail to another of your colleagues in your office. Anyway, that was just one of my suggestions, the other being Hyderabad-based English and Foreign Languages University. Let me today add British Council English language experts in New Delhi to my list.

I am afraid that the CBSE seems to be blithely oblivious to the magnitude of errors in its exam papers. With all humility at my command, I dare say my extensive and meticulous analyses of some of the recently conducted classes 10 and 9 papers and their marking schemes, attached to this mail, prove that your organization has reduced English assessments to a farce.  And why only English! I have seen the Hindi translations of instructions and questions in other subject papers are also full of errors. I can’t explain everything in this letter. I will be in India during May and June. If I am provided with a ticket from Pune to Delhi and accommodation in Delhi I can come over and sit with you and point out a host of desirable changes including the dozens of errors in your English textbooks. I made this offer to your chairman once in 2011 but never heard from him after a computer-generated message that informed me that he would contact me within a week.

I assure you that my letter is bereft of any bias; treat it as a wake-up call.

Regards

HP Singh