CBSE Class 12 English Core Sample Paper 2015 Solved Set A

Section A 

Reading

1. Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow:

1. Many recent international studies suggest that single-sex may be better than co-ed after all. But the reasons are far removed from the sociocultural factors that have bothered Indian parents all these years. Instead, research shows that the brains of boys and girls are wired differently, and so have different cognitive and emotional responses to different situations. Hence, a different learning environment makes sense.

2. The research has been piling up over the years. It showed how students from single-sex set-ups were more likely to proceed to college; how girls who attend single-six schools are more likely to participate in competitive sports than are girls at co-ed schools; and how co-ed classrooms may be emotionally detrimental to teenaged girls. A study of 13.000 people conducted by University of London found that those who went to singlesex schools were more likely to study subjects not traditionally associated with their gender. Girls from single-sex schools also went on to earn more than those from co-educational schools.

3. And thus the gender differences, which have always lurked somewhere in the minds of most teachers anyway, have now become a subject of scientific researches, educational policies and bestsellers. At least two books'Michael Gurian's 'Boys and Girls Learn Differently!' and Leonard Sax's 'Why Gender Matters : What Parents and Teachers Need to know about the Emerging Science of Sex Differences'–have successfully contributed to a change of mindset and educational policy in the US. In 2006, the Department of Education had, in fact, passed new regulations that made it easier for districts to create single-sex classrooms and schools.

4. In the Indian context, of course, the situation only gets more complex. There are, after all, a lot more factors at play here, including a widespread social preference for male children, a lesser emphasis on women's careers and adults are wary about the two sexes mixing. But like elsewhere in the world, here too opinions are diverse about whether co-ed is better or not. "Obviously, we have felt that single-sex education has great strengths."

5. "In India, many parents are not comfortable with the intermingling of boys and girls. So if you want all girls to be educated, it's better to have some separate schools for them. One cannot be categorical about this issue. "There are schools that are coeducational that have done extremely well. Having said that, there is a place in every educational system for singlesex schools because there will always be at least some students who do better in that environment, and they should have the choice of going to such schools."

6. Availability of this choice is what educationists and parents all over the world emphasise. Even Sax, a family physician-turned-author who has emerged as a champion of single-sex education in the US, has been reported to have stressed that one size does not fit all. "Our movement is about choice," Sax, the head of the National Association for Single Sex Public Education, told Time recently. And yet his website is full of pages that cite how co-educational settings actually reinforce gender stereotypes. Such a premise might actually be true in a country like India, where society at large still perceives males as primary breadearnersand women as bread-makers, where men are supposed to lead and women expected to follow.

7. "One does see that girls get relegated to a secondary role in a co-ed setup." It is not a straightforward issue about girls and boys merely being with each other. "It's more important to see how a school handles the building up of gender roles in society." In Indian government schools, It's not uncommon to come across boys cleaning the blackboard while girls sweep the floor or bring water." The focus should be on respectful intermingling, rather than forceful coexistence. "Bajpai too admits that teachers in India are not sensitized towards gender difference as part of their training in education. "Given the new research, it is important to take-stock of the findings and adjust our teaching accordingly," he says.

8. Educationists also say that they understand that each child learns differently, and the differences don't just have to do with the gender. In such a scenario, experienced and sensitive teachers would automatically find the best way to interact with and bring out the best in, each student. Utopian expectations, some might say. For most Indian parents though, expectations only extend as far as getting admission in a good school, one that is not 15 km away from home. 

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