Otimising the School Academic Calendar

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Arriving at an optimum examination schedule keeping in  mind the holidays, festivals and elections (at times), is a challenge. Last year the Class-X and XII Board examinations conducted by the CBSE started late on account of elections in U.P. Otherwise March 1 has been the traditional start date for the start of the examinations, year after year.

The CBSE Class-XII Examination Schedule for 2018 is badly skewed against the interests of science students. There is absolutely no gap between Mathematics (on 21st March) and Engineering Graphics (22nd March). It is a given that all the Engineering Graphics students study Mathematics. 

Stung by delays and inaccuracies in evaluation last year, the CBSE had earlier talked of advancing the start of the board examinations to February. However it did not find favour with schools as it would have affected course completion as well the schedule of the school-level examinations for other classes which are held simultaneously with the board examinations. 

For the first time in many years the Class-X examinations have spilled over to April. With both Class-X and XII examinations running into April, the new academic session that starts on 1st of April gets affected. Schools have to suspend classes on examination days as most of them are examination centers as well. Another critical issue is availability of teachers for classroom teaching as they are away on evaluation duty for at least 7 to 10 days. With summer attaining scorching heights by mid-April in most parts of India, the local administration steps in with either suspension of classes or truncation of schools' working hours. Would it not be a good idea to revert to the earlier practice of holding examinations in April (in the morning hours, say from 7 am to 10 am or 8 am to 11 am) and starting the new academic session from July? The six-week summer vacations in May-June can then be utilised for evaluation. The problem is going to be acute for schools in 2018-19 with a plethora of state elections as well the general elections coming up as teachers have also a big role to play in conducting them.

Comments

Unknown said…
Trully said sir all these points must be published in news papers and send to HRD Ministry & CBSE to awake the slipping policy makers. I think it would be better to prepond the exam schdule for at least one week
January 11, 2018 at 5:48 PM
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