CHENNAI: Schools are in a fix about how to let State board students, who were recently promoted from class 10, to pick streams in class 11 as year-end examinations have been cancelled. While the decision was made last year based on the internal performance of the students (quarterly and half yearly exams), a systemic way eludes many school heads this year. They are waiting for the government to clear the air.
P Vijayalakshmi, the principal of Chinmaya Vidyalaya, Virugambakkam said that students will be allotted streams based on their preferences. "We anyway do not make all decisions based on marks, but we base it on student interests. But if a student’s teacher feels that they cannot do well in a given stream, then we’ll discuss with the student and parents," she said.
KR Nandhakumar, the leader a schools association, on the other hand said, "We received some model question papers set by the government for mid-terms. We will conduct internal tests based on these papers and evaluate students."
A Anitha, the Chief Education Officer (CEO) of Chennai, however said that she has not issued or circulated any question paper so far. “We have taken no decision so far on how schools will be evaluating students. We have only issued revision papers for class 12 students,” she said.
However, another CEO, on condition of anonymity said that he allowed private schools to conduct any internal test they wanted to decide students’ class 11 stream. "But I did not give any explicit instruction," he clarified.
The principal of a government-aided school said: "We will keep conducting physical classes as we could not arrange for online classes. But I have no clue about how assessment should be done."