Most pvt schools say exams ended before lockdown, govt schools mull over implementation of CBSE directive

A day after the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) advised its affiliated schools to promote all Class 9 and Class 11 students to the next grades based

A day after the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) advised its affiliated schools to promote all Class 9 and Class 11 students to the next grades based on their internal assessments given the Covid-19 pandemic, a majority of private schools in the city on Thursday said they had managed to conduct the exams for these classes before the lockdown began, while those run by the Delhi government said they were yet to take a call on ways to implement the directions.

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In Delhi government schools, which are also affiliated to the CBSE, one exam was yet to be conducted for Class 9 and two for Class 11 before the lockdown was announced. However, the situation is different in both private and government schools of north-east Delhi where exams were first suspended in February due to the communal riots and later in March after the Covid-19 outbreak hit the Capital.

The Delhi government had on Monday announced it would promote all students up to Class 8 to the next grades without them having to write exams under the no-detention policy. The uncertainty around the Class 9 and Class 11 exams was put to an end when, on Wednesday, the CBSE directed all its schools to promote the students of these classes based on their internal assessments.

The internal assessment generally carries 20% weightage in the final results. It includes unit tests, projects, practicals and extracurricular activities.

A senior official in Delhi government’s education department said that in their schools, only the Urdu language exam was left for Class 9 students and Sociology and Engineering graphic exams for Class 11. However, the government schools in north-east Delhi were yet to take at least four exams for Class 9 and five for Class 11.

“We have just received the directions from the CBSE. We are now considering evaluating students based on their internal assessments that were conducted throughout the year and the annual exams that were held until the lockdown was announced. We will have to plan everything differently for the north-east Delhi schools. We will come up with a notification in a day or two,” the official said.

Gayyur Ahmed, principal of Sarvodya Bal Vidyalaya in Jama Masjid, said the schools are ready with the internal assessment marks of these classes. “We will go ahead and promote the students as soon as we receive a direction from the government,” he said.

Bharat Arora, general secretary of the action committee of private unaided schools, an umbrella group of around 1,000 private schools in Delhi, said, “Almost all schools affiliated to our organisation had completed their internal exams between March 10 and March 15, like every year. Many had also declared the results before the lockdown was announced. However, some schools were yet to conduct the compartment exams.”

Officials in several popular private schools, including Amity International School in Saket, Springdales School in Pusa road, Sanskriti School in Chanakyapuri, Delhi Public School (DPS), Mathura Road, and Mount Abu School in Rohini, said that they had conducted the annual exams for classes 9 and 11 before the lockdown.

Deeksha Khera, principal of DPS Mathura Road, said, “All our papers were conducted before the lockdown because generally exams are already done by that period. The results were declared online keeping social distancing measures in mind. If students fail in some papers, remedial measures will be taken.”

The CBSE had also directed the schools to give class 9 and 11 students an opportunity of appearing in internal tests, online or offline, in case they did not clear them earlier. Salwan Public School in Rajinder Nagar is planning to avail themselves of option suggested by the board. “While our results were declared before the lockdown, some students did not clear the exam and were to appear in the compartment exam. For them, we plan to carry remedial measures in this period through e-learning resources and carry online assessment,” school principal Indu Khetarpal said.

Experts said that it was the best alternative the CBSE could have come up with in the time of the pandemic. Shyama Chona, an education expert, said, “The schools can now test these students immediately after they get promoted to the next grades just to assess their learning levels. The teachers should know how much they know and how much they don’t. In this way, they can plan on how to bring the students at par in another two-three months in the same class.”

Meanwhile, the students raised concerns over the possible learning gap that can arise because of the lockdown. “This lockdown will affect a crucial academic year for us. As soon as school reopens, there will be academic and extracurricular activities as well. We’ll be under extreme pressure,” Nashita Imtiaz, a Class 12 student of Springdales School in Dhaula Kuan, said.

Some students also complained about logistical issues due to the lockdown and the feasibility of online lectures.”Classes have not started and most of us could not manage to procure our textbooks and mock tests before the lockdown. All learning is taking place through online classes, readings, and worksheets. There’s little classroom discussion. How much can one learn like that?” Rohit Kaushik, another Class 12 student, asked.