'Cradle to death state' foxes students

NEW DELHI: Socialist, fascist, and communist states may be common terms in political science, but "What do you understand by a ''cradle to death'' state?"
Baffled? Don''t worry, you are not alone. Thousands of Class XII CBSE students were caught unawares by the question, which appeared in the political science examination held on Friday. The question was worth 2 marks and was the first question of set three.
Most students found the paper easy otherwise.Others said they were sure the controversial question was not from the syllabus.
"I think I fared well, but no one had any clue on the ''cradle to death state'' question. Since this was the first question, it did throw us off balance initially," said Sahiba Singh, a student of Sanskriti School.
Teachers agreed the que-stion was challenging as the phrase was not mentioned in the prescribed text books.
"The phrase is not there in the text book," said Pratibha Oak, a teacher at St. Thomas School.
CBSE officials, however, say the paper was based entirely on the syllabus. "Experts who analyse the paper while the exam is in progress have not reported any anomalies," said CBSE controller of examinations Pavnesh Kumar.