Several CBSE schools in the city are drawing up plans on how to conduct exams in schools after the central board announced last week that the Class X and XII exams will be held offline.
More teachers on duty, more than one entry and exit gate, staggering students’ entry and a health declaration form for the candidates are some of the measures that schools will implement for the board exams on the premises after almost 18 months.
The health of the candidates will have to be given priority, heads of schools said.
The Central Board of Secondary Education had announced last week that the term 1 exams in November-December will have objective-type questions and be of 90-minute duration.
Heads of several schools said that they would have to ensure students do not crowd at any point of time. They will require more teachers on duty for this.
“The situation has changed now. Teachers and staff will be more alert and conscious, particularly because students are yet to be vaccinated. We have to keep the health of candidates in mind while the exam is being conducted and ensure all safety protocols on the campus,” said Krishna Damani, trustee, South Point.
South Point will ask the guardians and staff to fill up a health form that will ask them if they are running a temperature, have a cold, cough and running nose or if any family member has had Covid in the last fortnight.
At Indus Valley World School, the management is making arrangements for more entry and exit gates.
Teachers will be on duty to ensure that students do not walk in groups from the gate to the exam room, a school official said.
At North Point Senior Secondary Schools, candidates will be given slots to enter the campus to avoid crowding.
At Mahadevi Birla World Academy, the school is drawing up plans to have separate panels of teachers for managing the students.
As per the CBSE norm, the schools are planning 12 students in one room.
“We are planning two teachers per room, not to prevent cheating but to ensure that students do not come in contact with each other,” said Rita Chatterjee, director, North Point Senior Secondary Schools.
While schools will require additional teachers, the challenge is also to divide their workforce because online lessons for the non-board classes will continue during the exams.
Schools in the state had briefly opened in February but in several schools, the attendance recorded in that period was low.
“At that time, parents could choose whether they wanted to send their children to school or not. In our school, the number had petered out after the first few days. But during the board exam, there will be full attendance. So, we will have to have the complete plan ready so we can smoothly conduct the exam for the whole class,” said Amita Prasad, the director of Indus Valley World School.
Several heads of schools said that they were waiting for clarification from the board on how to proceed with the exam in case a candidate or a family member has Covid.
The schools will have isolation rooms in case someone showed symptoms but if a student has Covid, the norms will have to be different, teachers said.
“Students or teachers cannot be put at risk. So, we are waiting for instructions from the board,” said a principal in the city.
Term 1 tests for Class X from Nov. 30, Class XII exams from Dec. 1
The first term board exams for class 10 will begin from November 30, while the exams for class 12 is scheduled from December 1, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) announced on Monday.
According to examination controller Sanyam Bhardwaj, the announced date sheet is for major subjects while the schedule for minor subjects will be sent to schools separately.
The exams for minor subjects for classes 10 and 12 will begin from November 17 and November 16 respectively.
Bifurcating the academic session, holding two term-end exams and rationalising the syllabus were part of the special assessment scheme for class 10 and 12 CBSE board exams for 2021-22, which were announced in July in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The CBSE is offering 114 subjects in class 12 and 75 subjects in class 10. Out of these 19 are major subjects in class 12 and nine in class 10.
