Primary schools exam process clashes with Holi, teachers in quandary

PRAYAGRAJ, March 21 (HS): A communiqué by director-general of school education (DGSE), Vijay Kiran Anand has put primary teachers in a fix. “Annual examinations are scheduled to be held on March 25 and 26 for all the 1.8 crore students of classes 1 to 8 in government-run primary and upper primary schools. The evaluation process will be conducted on March 27, 28, and 29. The final results will be declared on March 31,” reads the order, a copy of which is with HS. The teachers, however, are not happy because the department has issued examination notifications in a short period of time, and evaluation work clashes with the Holi holidays.

DGSE while speaking to HS said, “No students will be denied promotion to the next class. Under the Right to Education (RTE) Act, no child can be made to repeat a class till Class 8.

There will only be an oral examination of 30 minutes duration for students of classes 1 and 2. For students of classes 3 to 5, there will be a written exam of multiple-choice questions of one-hour duration for all subjects. There will be 50 questions. For classes 6 to 7 as well, there will be a written examination based on objective-type questions and the duration of the exam will be one hour and 30 minutes. For Class, there will be a written examination, which will be a mix of multiple-choice and objective-type questions. Answer sheets of classes 3 to 7 will be evaluated at the school level and those of Class 8 by teachers of other schools. After evaluation, teachers are required to prepare report cards that will help in assessing the academic performance of students. The answer sheets would be evaluated between March 27 and 30 and report card distribution would be on March 31, in the presence of village education committee.”

In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, all students were promoted to the next level in March last year without examinations. Government schools remained closed for nearly a year. Upper primary schools reopened on February 10 and primary schools on March 1, with 50% attendance. Chief minister Yogi Adityanath recently said that promoting students without exams was the route of escapism. Instead of promoting students of basic Shiksha Parishad schools to the next level without examination, there should be an effort to prepare them for tough competition, he emphasized.