‘Consult all stakeholders about holding board exams’, say teachers

A group of teachers will submit a draft of suggestions to the government on Monday. Representation pic

The rising COVID-19 numbers and scare of a second wave have prompted teachers and students appearing for board exams later and their parents to use social media platforms to draw the government's attention to their concerns. Teachers have drafted a list of suggestions to be submitted to the government.

Screenshot of a Zoom session of teachers on Saturday

The suggestions include allowing students to give the papers in their respective schools instead of allocating a different centre. Their efforts on social media paid off, as #Reducemoresyllabus, #Justice4Students and #SupportMaharashtraStudents started trending on Twitter earlier on Sunday. While twitterati tagged the chief minister and school education minister Varsha Gaikwad in their posts, a group of teachers from across Maharashtra prepared a draft of suggestions that they will submit to the government on Monday.

With help of 13 teachers
Many teachers, students and their parents are opposing the board's decision to hold exams in traditional pen-paper format. Around 13 teachers from across the state have united to raise the voices of the unheard.

Dineskumar Gupta, a mathematics teacher at a Kalina school, said, "This year, students appearing for board exams are the most stressed lot as nothing is regular. In several parts of the state, the syllabus is incomplete, there were no practice tests, doubt-solving sessions weren't enough and the list goes on. A 25 per cent reduction in syllabus was done considering schools would reopen after Diwali. But they didn't in Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai, while some other regions had to shut schools again owing to rising cases. In such a case, it is very important that the government pays attention to the concerns of students, and listens to teachers' demand of holding a discussion to bring about certain reforms." "One of the top suggestions is an online exam; we know it may not be possible everywhere. In that case, students can have the option to choose between online and offline as per degree level exams.

Dineskumar Gupta, mathematics teacher

Other suggestions include allowing children to sit for papers at their respective schools instead of going to another centre, reducing total marks allotted to written tests by adjusting school based-assessment so that the timing of an exam can be reduced, giving question banks to students to make exam preparation easier," said Gupta.

He said these suggestions were made by teachers from different regions of the state. "Around 16 lakh SSC students and 12 lakh HSC students are attached to us through our network of online teachers," he added.