BENGALURU: As many as 44 stakeholders, including representatives from school, teachers’ and parents’ associations and education experts, met education department officials to discuss holding of exams for classes 1 to 10. A decision will be taken in two days, said Primary and Secondary Education Minister S Suresh Kumar.On Friday, the government suspended all classes from grades six to nine, raising questions about holding examinations.
Parents’ associations were peeved that they were not called for the discussion. After taking it up with the education department on Monday, a parent said they were allowed to make their point. “Parents are not for holding examinations. Under the RTE Act, schools cannot detain students up to class 8. The NCERT states that the assessment should be a continuous comprehensive evaluation (CCE) which is held throughout the year, and not one test at the end of the year based on which promotions to the next class are made,” M Shakeel from Voice of Parents said. Parents fear that school administrations will ‘fleece’ them for fees in the garb of examinations.
On the other hand, school administrators are for holding examinations, said General Secretary, Associated Managements of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka (KAMS) Shashi Kumar. Parents seemed more worried about paying fees than sending their children for exams, he added. “The school association has sought online exams for students from classes one to five, and offline exams for classes 6 to 9, with a proper SOP and in two shifts,” he said.
Education expert Niranjanaradhya said that the RTE Act prohibits expelling students until class 8. “If assessments are held, they should be consistent with the Amendment Act 2019, where the state is permitted to decide on conducting examination for classes 5 and 8. This would mean no examination for other classes. The decision for classes 5 and 8 should be within the CCE framework. If students fail the examination, the additional instruction should be given by the school and after two months, a re-exam should be held. If they fail that too, the state can decide if the students should remain in the same class.”
This year, he said the government was told to pass all students, and in the interim three months, ensure they attain a minimum competency before going to the next class.
ENSURE EXAMINATIONS ARE HELD, HORATTI URGES EDUCATION MINISTER
Bengaluru: Legislative Council Chairman Basavaraj Horatti has written to the primary and secondary education minister, urging him to ensure that examinations are conducted, and if the situation permits, start on-campus lessons for students of classes 6 to 9. This comes after the education minister announced suspension of these classes across the state on Friday. Classes 10 to 12 will continue, but attendance will not be mandatory. Horatti urged the minister not to fail the students. He also lauded the government’s decision to hold a discussion with private schools over holding examinations.