education

Updated: Mar 20, 2020 13:55 IST

A few days after schools in Maharashtra suspended classes, some institutions that offer the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) and International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) curriculums have now decided to promote students between Classes 1 and 8 on the basis of their previous scores without holding examinations.

Schools have taken the decision owing to the uncertainty over reopening amid the coronavirus shutdown. “The idea is to ensure that parents and children don’t panic and concentrate on maintaining their health instead of taking the exam pressure. For Classes 1 to 4, we follow the Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) and hence there are no exams. For Classes 5 to 7, we have decided to score students on the basis of their previous assessments,” said Fr Francis Swamy, principal, St Mary’s ICSE school Mazgaon.

On Wednesday, Goregaon’s Vibgyor High sent an email to all its parents stating that students from grade 1 to 4 will be promoted to the next grade. “Those from grades 5 to 8 are exempt from second term examination and their grades will be calculated on the basis of cumulative/aggregate marks obtained so far,” stated the email.

Nikhat Azam, principal, Billabong High International School, Santacruz, which runs the IGCSE curriculum said that the school has decided to promote students from Class 1 to 9 on their previous grades after it decided to close its operations. “The management had taken the call when they decided to shut the schools. We have decided to impart learning through online portals,” said Azam.

Some schools are also exploring the possibility of conducting their examinations online as there is no certainty about when schools would be able to reopen. “We are exploring options to give tests to our students online so that we don’t have to worry about the school closure,” said Kavita Sanghvi, principal of the Chattrabhuj Narsee Memorial School (CNMS) in Vile Parle which is affiliated to the ICSE board.

While the ICSE board has come up with a uniform time table for Class 9 examinations starting this year, exams to Classes 1 and 8 are conducted at the school level as per their own schedule. Meanwhile, the CBSE and ICSE boards have decided to postpone their Class 10 and 12 board exams.

SSC exams to continue, edu dept yet to decide on schedule for Classes 1-9 exams

The state education department has decided to continue with the ongoing Class 10 SSC exams in the state. Students will write their history paper on Saturday (March 21) and their Geography paper on Monday (March 23).

There is no decision, however, on whether or not schools should conduct examinations for students between Class 1 and 9 and if so, when. While most schools conduct exams upto Class 8 in April, exams for Class 9 are mostly conducted earlier as those who fail to clear them have to go through a re-exam before the new academic year begins in June. “Our exams for Class 9 were on but we have postponed them and will announce new dates only after we hear from the government,” said the principal of a school in the eastern suburbs.