Anirud
The dreaded novel coronavirus – COVID-19, declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation last March which silently surfaced and continues to play havoc, steadily infecting millions, is a cause for serious concern.
Literally turning the world upside down, the unprecedented distractions caused by COVID adversely impacting hundreds of thousands of human lives is rather mind boggling.
Against the backdrop of COVID, in its second iteration, infecting thousands since this February, but reportedly affecting the younger population more than others, it is laudable that the CBSE Class 10 examinations, scheduled to commence from 4 May this year, have since been cancelled.
The move to temporarily put on hold the exams for Class 12, to be reviewed in June, ostensibly is aimed at hopefully waiting for the virus curve to flatten. Otherwise, exams could be delayed once again but the students will be informed 15 days before its start.
Over 2.1 million students were scheduled to appear for the Class 10 CBSE board exams and another 1.4 million for the Class 12 exams. As a precautionary measure to prevent overcrowding, CBSE, which has more than 20,000 schools under its ambit, arranged staggered seating for the Board exams in two shifts across its 7500 centres in the country and abroad this year. Conducting public examinations, a massive exercise, also means deployment of hundreds of teachers and support staff. The consequences of any callousness on Covid-19 containment would be simply unfathomable.
In line with CBSE’s decision, many State Boards and the CISCE either have deferred or cancelled Class 10 and 12 exams. True, Class 10 and 12 exams, considered a stepping stone to higher education, are pivotal for millions of students. Beyond playing an important role in the process of learning, exams intend to assess what the students have learned.
Even as uncertainty can cause a lot of mental stress and frustration for students as well as their parents, precious little can be done in the current situation.
Nevertheless, to put over 280 plus million young learners through the hassle of exams at a time of an unprecedented health crisis can do more harm than good. Human safety is more important than exams.
Let’s rewind for a moment. Last March, educational institutions had to be temporarily closed all of a sudden to contain the spread of coronavirus. A national lockdown that quickly followed literally confined children, otherwise playing and enjoying life, within their homes.
While many small schools unable to sustain had to shut down permanently, notwithstanding new challenges, others were forced to switch over from blackboard-chalk teaching model to technology driven remote/online methods of teaching, evaluation etc.
For higher classes, some of the CBSE exams were initially postponed as a precautionary measure and subsequently rescheduled only for core subjects considered essential for promotion and admission to higher educational institutions. Later, finding no respite from the pandemic, instead of conducting exams for the remaining subjects, CBSE adopted an alternative marking system for such papers the students had not appeared. Accordingly, the average of best of three papers (for students who appeared in four exams) and a best of two (for those who appeared in three exams) and an internal assessment for students who took two or fewer exams was considered. Class 12 students got the option to appear in online compartment exams and optional improvement exams in September. Similar choice was not available for Class 10 students.
It was only after nearly 9-10 months, students of Class 10 and 12 briefly attended physical classes this January amidst safety protocols put in place.
Compared to conventional classroom education, teachers and students had to overcome several hurdles. Initially, a staggering 84% of teachers reported facing issues in delivering education digitally and two out of every five teachers did not have the necessary devices.
Despite several odds, children in some families attended online classes by turns for want of a dedicated smartphone. The Annual Status of Education Report 2020 which surveyed 26 States and four Union Territories found that the percentage of enrolled children from government and private schools owning a smartphone increased enormously from 36.5 per cent in 2018 to 61.8 per cent in 2020 in rural India.
On the flip side, many creative initiatives adopted by some teachers ably demonstrated that teaching can go on smoothly even during the pandemic. There are many success stories: be it in a far flung North East village, where a maths teacher’s concern for her students made her visit them at their homes for short lessons or in a remote Chhattisgarh village, where the local administration facilitated teachers in broadcasting lessons using loudspeakers.
Now back to basics. Although hopefully, children should not be restricted to their homes in the new academic year, at the macro level controlling COVID infections is the best option under the prevailing circumstances.
Apart from other proactive measures underway and the ongoing vaccination drive, which could be extended to the young population as well, it is important for adults to display COVID-appropriate behaviour so that children learn by example.
Besides formulating multi-pronged strategy in the long-term for establishing a resilient domestic education system, there is an utgent imperative need to reduce the digital divide between rural and urban, gender, age, income groups etc., and address inequalities in educational outcomes in the right earnest.
Education merits to be reimagined keeping the pandemic in mind.
feedbackexcelsior@gmail.com
Follow our WhatsApp channel
