Covid outbreak has had a debilitating effect on education in the last two years. With the new rules regarding Covid clusters, teachers and students are worried about how SSLC and Plus-Two examinations will be conducted this year. With the new focus areas in place, it might be harder for students to crack the exams and so, they are asking the government to rectify the drawbacks.
“This year, the ratio of portions students can expect questions from has been set at 70:30. Seventy per cent of the questions will be from focus area while 30% will be asked from anywhere in the textbook,” said a teacher of a government school which has 58 students appearing for the SSLC examinations this year.
“This will, of course, ensure the students a B+ grade. But to get A+ grade, they will have to go through the entire textbook,” she added. This would not have been an issue if there was enough time to teach the kids, they say.
“The offline classes began only in November. And even during the offline classes, students got little time to interact with teachers. It also didn’t help to have the school hours limited till 1pm,” said the teacher. According to him, every week, each student got just three days of offline lessons.
“We didn’t get time for revision. Last year, the entire portions were completed online. At least, there was some continuity. But this year, everything is mixed up,” said another teacher who pointed out that many students also skipped online classes.
“They said they lost their smartphones. Some parents even sold off their phones. We can’t blame them, these students come from families with varied financial backgrounds,” she said. These students got to learn even less chunk of the portions, she said.
According to her, last year, relatively easy questions ensured more students got an A+. “As of now, teachers are hurrying to finish the portions by the end of January. Teachers are taking extra classes to complete the portions. We don’t want our students to perform badly. But we have no idea as to how they are going to study the entire textbook for the examination,” said the teacher.