VIJAYAWADA: The Education Department has written to the state government seeking postponement of Class 10 examinations, scheduled from June 7, by at least a month in view of the Covid pandemic. The government is likely to take a decision in this regard in the next couple of days. Additional Director (School) A Subba Reddy on Tuesday told TNIE that the department has written to the state government stating that it would be a tough task for the education officials to make arrangements for the conduct of the examinations in view of the partial curfew enforced by the state government till the end of this month, and as several educational institutions were turned into isolation centres.
The officials also pointed out that several states like Telangana, Odisha, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh had cancelled their respective board exams. They also stated that states such as Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh , Rajasthan , Jharkhand, West Bengal, Goa and Assam postponed the exams while Bihar and Kerala conducted the examinations as per schedule. “Considering all these factors, a decision should be taken by the government,’’ Subba Reddy said.
It might be recalled that the Andhra Pradesh government declared summer holidays for the class 10 students from May 1 to 31 in the wake of second wave of COVID -19 and decided to conduct examinations from June 7. The sources said the department has already conducted two formative examinations of 50 marks each for the Class 10 students. Instructions were passed on to the officials to enrol the marks of internal exams in the next couple of days so that they can help the students in case the examinations were cancelled like the last year.
Meanwhile, Education Minister Audimulapu Suresh sought the suggestions of leaders of various teachers’ unions on issues including the conduct of the examinations. The unions suggested that the examinations be conducted and wanted teachers to be treated as frontline workers for vaccination. They also wanted ex gratia for those who succumbed to the virus. “We will take all your suggestions to the government and Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy would look into them positively,’’ Suresh assured.