Srinagar, Oct 18: The State Council of Education Research and Training (SCERT) J&K, has proposed that the annual regular (2021) examination of class 8th students be conducted from mid-November through an offline mode.
An SCERT official said a proposal in this connection has been sent to the administrative department for its approval to hold the class 8th examination from the proposed dates through offline mode.
“These days we need to get approval from State Disaster Management Authorities (SDMA) for holding any examination through offline mode. So we have submitted the proposal for approval. We have also submitted the proposal for approval to the administrative department of school education,” Director SCERT, VeenaPandita told Greater Kashmir.
“The final decision for holding the examination will be announced after getting the approval from the government,” she said.
She however said they have proposed the tentative dates to the government.
“We have proposed to hold examination from mid-November through an offline mode. But we are waiting for the government’s approval,” she said.
An official however said the SCERT was planning to hold the school based term-II examination of class 8th students in line with National Education Policy (NEP) -2020.
“SCERT is mulling to hold school based examinations without any involvement of any external agency as used to be during past years. In the past DIETs would set the question paper and monitor the conduct of exams. Even examination centres were also set up in other schools for the students,” the official said.
He said this year the SCERT was mulling to hold a school based examination for which the setting of question paper and evaluation will be done by the respective schools.
“But the final decision will be announced only after getting approval from the government,” he said.
Meanwhile, the school education department is indecisive over holding lower class exams despite holding several meetings with the stakeholders.
An official said the Director School Education Kashmir (DSEK) recently convened a meeting with SCERT wherein the issue of holding lower class examination was discussed as well.
“The director was suggested to prepare test material and conduct the annual examination of lower class students through online mode. But the directorate has not finalized anything as of now,” an official said.
Notably the schools across the Valley conducted Term-I examination of lower class students by evaluating their assignments.
“During Term-I exams, the schools delivered the assignments of the students to their homes. The students submitted the same assignments which were evaluated to award them marks,” a school teacher said.
Meanwhile, the Private Schools Association J&K (PSAJK) has demanded that the government should allow schools to hold offline examination for lower classes (5t to 7th).
“The students last time appeared in examination three years ago. Since then the children are away from the formal learning process. Department should allow the schools to hold offline exams for lower classes while adhering to Covid19 guidelines,” chairman PSAJK G N Var said.