Students at the government and aided schools appeared for the higher secondary practical examinations on Tuesday in groups on campuses amid the pandemic.
The state higher secondary council has asked schools to complete the exams within March 3. The HS theory papers will be conducted from April 2 to 20.
Some of the schools will start the practical exams from Wednesday.
At Jadavpur Vidyapith in south Kolkata, students were split in groups in order of the registration number and students of a particular group were called on the first day to appear for practical examination in subjects like physics and chemistry.
Students assembled in the respective labs under the watch of the subject teachers.
“The teachers gave us the topics on which we wrote the exams,” said a student who was present at the physics lab.
Rajendra Nath Mandal, teacher-in-charge of Jadavpur Vidyapith, said that students would take turns while appearing the exams according to the slots from March 15 to 24.
Saugata Basu, a teacher at Uttarpara Government High School said, students attended practical examinations in four subjects – physics, chemistry, computer application and geography – on Tuesday.
“Since physics, chemistry, computer applications have 42 students each, they have been split into two batches. Twenty-one took the exam on Tuesday. The remaining 21 will write the exams on Wednesday. The remaining subjects have a lesser number of students. Those students will write the exams on a particular day within February 18,” said Basu.
Avhranil Mondal, a Class XII student who has physics, said: “There was an experiment organised by our teachers and we had to take the reading from that experiment and plot it in the specific graph and prove the scientific experiment. Since the practical classes could not be held because of the pandemic induced closure of the campuses, the practical exams are being held on limited topics”.
