Periodic Assessment Test begins, principals complain of question paper shortage

Many school principals from city’s Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)-run civic schools have complained of shortage of question papers causing chaos on the first day of the PAT that started on Monday.

“The State Council for Educational Research and Training (SCERT) which is conducting the PAT has asked an exact number of students in all government-run schools across Maharashtra. Yet the question papers sent by them were inadequate. In fact, in many cases, the number of question papers provided to schools is less than half of the students studying in the class,” said one of the BMC school principals requesting anonymity.

The PAT was announced in August under the centrally sponsored scheme called Strengthening of Teaching, Learning, and Outcomes (STARS).

BMC education officer, Rajesh Kankal said, “On day one there was shortage of question-papers. But accordingly SCERT was informed about it and a vehicle was sent from here to bring additional question-papers so that we do not have any issue on the second and third day of the exam.”
The PAT is aimed at conducting uniform assessment of children studying in classes 3 to 8 in government-run schools across Maharashtra.

Following the declaration of PAT, schools also decided to consider the score of these exams for the school-level exam.