No fixed date for mid-term exams in city govt schools

“The UT education department usually asks all schools to start the mid-term exams in the first week of September; but this year,there were no such guidelines. This resulted in every school formulating its own date-sheet as per their convenience,” said the principal of a government model school.

Surprisingly,the education department was not even aware of this practice adopted in schools until the department was apprised of the situation when some parents complained about the ill-effect on the studies of their wards if the exams are conducted over a month.

“When exams would continue for a whole month,which would be followed by marking of answer sheets and compilation of results,it is hard to imagine when the teachers would take classes and complete the syllabus. Already,many classes,especially Class XI and XII,have suffered a lot due to delay in admission process that continued,for the first time,till August,” said a parent,who complained about the arbitrary method adopted by the schools.

The mid-term exams in government schools have always lasted for two weeks at the most. “There is no check from the department on the schools. They are following their own rules,and the students are at the receiving end. All these years,September exams would always get over before the 15th day of the month; but this time,they will continue for a month. Even the board exams are not scheduled for one month,” said a school teacher.

As per the only date-sheet chalked prepared by the education department,the exams for Class IX and X will start from September 15 and continue till October 1. This is in consonance with the date sheet suggested by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). As the question papers for Class IX and X will be provided by the CBSE,there has been a centralised date-sheet.

District Education Officer Chanchal Singh,when informed about this,has reportedly asked for a written explanation from the principal of Government Model Senior Secondary School,Sector 16.

Singh has been monitoring the entire examination schedule. When asked about the department’s failure to regularise the system,he said he would look into the matter and get the system in place.