Lockdown impact: West Bengal calls off first-term school exams

KOLKATA: The West Bengal government has called off first summative examinations which were slated to be held in April in government and government-aided schools. Schools will remain closed in Bengal till April 15. With no clarity on how long the lockdown will continue, the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education has taken this decision.
In each class, students have to appear in three formative and three summative examinations.Up to Class-VIII, marks of only three summative examinations are taken into account to consider final results. For classes IX and XI, scores from all three formative and three summative examinations are considered to qualify a student for the next class. The first summative is held in April, the second in July and the third in December and the results are published thereafter.
Two options remain before the Madhyamik board to accommodate the missed summative test scores in the rest of the academic year. “Either it has to increase aggregate marks in second summative examination or postpone summer holidays,” said Saugata Basu, general secretary of the West Bengal Government School Teachers’ Association.
The decision to postpone the first summative examination in April amid a crisis situation has also raised the possibility of pushing back the reintroduction of the detention system in classes V and VIII by another year. “The detention policy was to be back from the 2020 academic year in classes V and VIII. If the first summative test can’t be held then in such scenario, the government may push back reintroduction of detention policy,” said a source in the school education department.
President of Madhyamik Board, Kanlanmoy Ganguly, said since an examination can’t be held without teaching students the syllabus, first summative test will have to be postponed from April.
Meanwhile, the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan has decided to promote all students between classes I and VIII without exam appearance for this session. The decision will be examined by the state if the situation fails to improve for an indefinite period.