Parents, schools wait for assessment criteria

Deepankar Sharda
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, April 15

A day after the Centre cancelled the Class X board exams, schools and parents are now in a fix over the criteria for the assessment of marks.

While the decision was welcomed by many students, there are a few who are worried about their percentage.

“As much as parents have welcomed the decision, we are also anxious and are waiting for the CBSE to declare the assessment criteria,” said Parul, a parent.

Meanwhile, school authorities are waiting for directions from the CBSE on how the students are to be evaluated and promoted to the next class. The schools are of the view that assessment should be done on a concrete basis.

“The whole exercise of cancelling the examinations has been unnecessary. Only a handful of students are happy with the decision as there are many students who have skipped their pre-boards and other internal examinations. How will we assess their performance?” said HS Mamik, president, Independent Schools’ Association (ISA), Chandigarh.

“We have to wait for the CBSE guidelines. We just cannot judge a student’s performance from one examination, especially in times like these. Such a criteria should be devised so that the overall performance of a student can be judged,” said Harsimran Kaur, principal, The Gurukul.

“The decision to cancel the Class X board exams has come as a shock for those who have been preparing dedicatedly for the exams. Perhaps, under the current scenario, this was the only viable solution for the government but I feel that some sort of viva or offline exams, with all SOPs in place, must be conducted at least at the school level. In this way, those who have been studying hard will not feel that their efforts have been wasted,” said Amita Khorana, principal, Shishu Niketan Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 22-D.

Rubinderjit Singh Brar, DPI (Schools), UT Administration, also said the UT Education Department would wait for CBSE guidelines.