By~ Kushal
The exam is an assessment test conducted to evaluate the knowledge of students. Students must pass exams to earn credits and move to the next class. Board exams are public examinations conducted for 10th and 12th standard students. There are many boards conducting board examinations such as the Central Board of Secondary Education(CBSE), MP Board, UP Board, etc.
Due to the syllabus completion problems and an increasing number of cases daily, there is a doubt whether it is also going to affect the board exam of 2021. But the successful conduct of various exams in this critical period gives hope for Board exams to be on time.
How To Conduct Board Exams
Exam centres are frequented by many peoples so there is a need for proper planning to conduct exam in the period of COVID-19. There are many exams already conducted during the COVID-19 period. Exams such as NEET, JEE, IBPS, university exams for final year and board exams have been held in these phase. We can similarly conduct the board exam to be held in 2021. Board exam can be conducted by following certain rules and regulations. There should be Social distancing, sanitization, thermal screening, etc. The exams should only be conducted in the centres outside from containment zones. Planning of exams to be done considering social distancing by scheduling exams in staggered manner to avoid overcrowding and room must have adequate capacity with proper sitting arrangement. Proper arrangements for face masks, sanitizer, soap, etc need to be
made.
Will they be postponed?
Schools are closed for more than 6 months. The lectures are held online but due to a lack of resources such as mobile phones and internet facilities, some students are not able to attend the classes. So these students can face a problem while attempting the exam. There is a syllabus completion problem on time. Also, the number of cases is increasing daily. Due to this above reason, there is a probability of delay in board examinations. But if the board exams will be delayed this will affect the academic calendar for next year and also the competitive exams will be affected by this delay. So there is a possibility for the CBSE board exam to be held earlier than expected and the syllabus can also be reduced to conduct the exam early. Some articles also suggest that there is a possibility of delay in exams. So there is a possibility of both delay and early conduction of examinations. But exams should be on time to avoid problems that can be caused due to delay.
Opening of schools and colleges
Dates for school reopening is uncertain. Standard operating procedure(SOP) are released by Union Health Ministry for reopening of schools. But some states such as Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa, etc have denied for opening of schools. Schools are closed from March in India. Some reports say the government is planning to reopen the schools in a phased manner from September 1 and November 14, 2020. However, many states are against the decision due to the safety of the students. And many states are in support of the union ministry of reopening the schools. And as the number of cases are increasing daily. India on 9th of November reported 45,903 new cases of the novel coronavirus infection in the last 24 hours. The caseload in the country now stands at 85,53,657. With 490 new deaths, the death toll in the country mounted to 1,26,611. There are a total of 5,09,673 active cases after a decrease of 2,992 cases in the last 24 hours. A total of 79,17,373 have cured of the disease, while 48,405 people have been discharged in the last 24 hours. In Andhra Pradesh where schools reopened on November 2, about 600 students and 830 teachers tested COVID-19 positive in the last four days. By seeing these situations parents are also not in favour of reopening of schools as they are also concerned about children’s health safety. Parents also want that class should continue virtually as long as conditions are not normal. But since the recovery rate is also increasing we can open the schools because syllabus of students is still incomplete. And also teachers are not able to evaluate the potential of students Properly and there is communication gap between teachers and students.
Teachers against postponement
Health is more important than studies and also we can not put the life of students in risk. Due to these reasons parents and teachers thinks exams should be delayed till the conditions become normal. But some teachers are against postponement of the exam. There have been many protests in the past against the exam conduction. A teachers’ association in Tamil Nadu has moved to the Madras High Court seeking to defer the class 10 board examinations by two months. Also, there are some reports that say teachers and students are not in favour of delay.
In a meeting Priyanka Barara, Principal, Delhi International School said “Postponing the board exams can have some serious repercussions on the student’s growth and performance preparing via remote learning. As this session was attributed to getting familiar with remote learning tools, by both the students and teachers”. Teachers are aware of the future consequence of delay in exams thus they are against the postponement.
Read more about: Learnings amidst a pandemic
