KOCHI: It seems the long-standing demand of parents and teachers for conducting the SSLC examinations during the forenoon might well turn a reality. However, everything hinges on the availability of infrastructure. At a meeting held the other day, Education Minister C Ravindranath asked the authorities to explore the possibility of conducting both the SSLC and Higher Secondary Examinations during the forenoon.
Lal K I, Pareekshabhavan secretary, inforned the meeting it has been decided to conduct the half-yearly and model examinations of SSLC, Plus One and Plus Two in the morning.
“This will be done on an experimental basis. We want to study the viability of holding all the examinations in the morning. Not all the schools have the necessary infrastructure to simultaneously hold the examinations,” he said. “If the half-yearly and model examinations go without a hitch, the final SSLC, Plus One and Plus Two examinations might be held in the morning. But a final decision will be arrived at only after the Christmas examinations,” he added.
The suggestion to hold SSLC examinations also in the morning came up during the Quality Improvement Programme (QIP) meeting held in the state capital recently. “During the meeting, it was decided to conduct a survey of the infrastructure available at the schools. It was said a decision will be taken only after accessing the capacity of the school to hold the board examinations simultaneously,” said C J Harikrishnan, KSTA. Parents and students have been complaining of the difficulty the students had to face while writing examinations in the afternoon, especially in the sweltering heat in March.
According to a teacher, there is no difficulty in making arrangements for conducting all the Board Examinations in the morning. “If CBSE can indeed do it why can’t the State Board? The only thing that has to be done is to plan meticulously. If a school doesn’t have the facilities, an arrangement can be made for the students to appear for the examinations in another school.
Everything is possible if authorities decided to press ahead with it,” she said. According to the experts, climate change is an undeniable fact. “It is a fact. So we need to alter our academic schedules accordingly. If not, our kids who will suffer. Scheduling examinations during the hottest period of the year hardly makes sense,” said Vijaykumar a physician.