The closure of schools for close to two years because of Covid has weakened the comprehension skills of students, many of whom are worried about how they would perform in Madhyamik, teachers of government schools said.
A subject counselling session was held at a government school for students who will appear in Madhyamik, which starts on March 7.
A teacher who attended the session said they realised from the questions many students asked that their comprehension skills had taken a hit. That also became evident in the answers they came up with. Some of the students said they were worried whether they would be able to complete the papers in Madhyamik.
During online classes, the only mode of learning over the past two years, the students were not given any deadline to write answers.
The counselling was held at Sakhawat Memorial Government Girls’ High School and attended by 100-odd students from government schools in Kolkata and adjoining areas.
Saugata Basu, a teacher of life science at Uttarpara Government High School, said the questions asked by many students at the counselling made it clear that lack of in-person classes for such a long period weakened their command of the subjects.
“They asked questions they normally would not have asked. This was noticed even when in-person classes resumed in mid-November. The problems are being addressed but there are still some,” Basu said.
Teachers said students’ performance in the rehearsal exams in December, too, showed their grasp on the subjects had weakened.
Boisakhi Biswas, a teacher at Begum Rokeya Smriti Valika Vidyalaya, said: “I teach life science but I was present at the session on physical science. Students asked questions they should not have a month before the exams. They would have benefitted much more had such interactions been held earlier.”
Teachers at the session also realised that the students are suffering from exam phobia, a consequence of their long stay away from schools.
Swarnali Mistry, a Class X student of Sakhawat Memorial Government Girls’ High School, said: “An exam phobia has set in because we did not have to write any exam till the rehearsal test in December. I struggled to answer questions in the rehearsal exams. During the counselling, we were told how to increase our speed of writing.”
