Lack of space in Punjab schools forces Class 8 students to sit for exams in courtyard

Education Minister Daljeet Singh Cheema has claimed that this will help in improving the standard of education in the state.

However, what was ignored is that the class 8 exams are clashing with class 12 exams leading to a shortage of space and benches to sit.

Paramjit Kaur, district education officer (secondary), said that since the ‘external’ exams are being held for the first time, there were some shortcomings.

“We were not aware that dates of Class 12 exam were clashing with that of Class 8. As per the norms, there has to be one bench per child during an exam, we will improve arrangements next year,” she said.

Speaking to The Indian Express, a Ludhiana teacher said, “Our school has been made examination centre for both Class 8 and 12. More than 250 students of Class 8 and 12 each come for the exam at the same time. We do not have adequate number of benches for them. So Class 8 students have to sit on the ground. Some also sit in the open, in the school courtyard because of this.”

The teacher said that the school authorities tried their best to make proper arrangements. “We took 100 benches from a private school but they were not enough. The education department should have taken care of the infrastructure before issuing the list of examination centres.”

Some schools which did not have rugs to spread on the ground sought help from local gurdawaras. Schools have also been ordered to provide mid-day meals to students during the exams.

“Exams start at 2 pm and mid-day meal for our own students is cooked before 1 pm. Besides, funds for mid-day meal ration have not arrived since January. How long can teachers spend from their own pockets or or lend from the grocery shops? No fund has been sent to us for preparing meals for the 250 extra students,” said a government teacher from Moga.

Class V and VIII students in Punjab are appearing for their first external exam under Learning Outcome Evaluation System (LOES) being conducted by the State Council of Education Research and Training (SCERT). This is different from the earlier used Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) system under which they gave exams in their own classrooms and the question papers were set by their own teachers.

Under this new system, the students will only be given grades and will not be denied promotion in case of ‘poor performance’. Instead, they will be given remedial coaching.

The decision was taken after the education department deemed the CCE to be a ‘complete failure’ and held it responsible for degradation of education in Punjab since implementation of Right to Education Act (RTE).