Parents raise concerns over ‘safety’ as final exams ‘planned’ in offline mode

NT NETWORK

Panaji

The rising graph of COVID-19 cases in the state has been a matter of concern for the parents of the school going children as many of these students have been asked by their schools to appear for the final exams conducted through offline mode.

It has been observed that many schools in rural areas are calling their students to classrooms, to appear for the final exam. However, the schools in urban areas are generally following the online mode for conducting the final exam.

Meanwhile, many students as well as school staff members around the state have been found COVID-19 positive, after being tested for the infection, following symptoms such as fever and body ache.  

Some of the schools, however, are sensitive to the apprehension of the parents and are conducting exams virtually. The state registered 200 cases of COVID-19 on the last day of the ongoing month.

The parent teachers associations linked to the schools have expressed unhappiness over physical conduct of final exam by some schools. The chairman of the PTA of a city- based school said that the lives of the students cannot be put at risk because of the whims and fancies of the school managements.

Martin Rodrigues, the vice president (examination) of the Goa Headmasters’ Association said that the department of education has not given any direction to the managements of the schools to conduct offline exam for students up to class VIII.

“Therefore, I don’t think schools managements are calling these students to schools for conducting final exam,” he added. The department of education has stated that the final exam for students up to class VIII needs to be completed before May 8. The schools will have summer vacation from May 10 to June 19.

Parents have complained that in addition to the risk faced by their children as regards getting infected with the deadly virus in their school, there is also a chance of these children contracting the illness during their transportation to the institution, more so if they are using the public transport.

Those schools, which will conduct online final exam for their students from class I to class VIII have made arrangements to send question papers to students either on the school app or any messaging app. At the end of the examination time, the students will have to send their answer papers in PDF format to their respective teacher.

The syllabus till class VIII has been curtailed by up to 30 per cent by the department of education.

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