As the Telangana Education Ministry has indefinitely postponed Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examinations on Saturday night, teachers’ unions and parents’ associations are demanding to cancel the examinations completely instead of postponing them to a later date.
Earlier, on Saturday, the Telangana High Court ordered to conduct exams in the state, except in regions falling under the Greater Hyderabad municipal corporation (GHMC) limits and Ranga Reddy district. Exams were exempted from these areas considering the high number of coronavirus cases. Following this, the state has decided to postpone exams across the state.
Given the situation where the state is witnessing an increase in coronavirus cases, one can never know when it will decrease and when it is safe to start conducting examinations, said educationists.
"Class 10 students have been going through the same syllabus over the last 18 months. They have studied it for a long period of time and there is no use in continuing to do so. It only causes additional stress. Instead, these examinations should be cancelled and students should be given marks based on the internal assessment. If earlier 20% of the internal marks were added to the final, it should be made into 100%," said Amarnath Vasi Reddy from Slate Group of School.
There were proposals to allot marks from the pre-final examinations as the final tally. However, these marks are still with the respective schools and there are chances of malpractice, where marks can be altered, noted Amarnath. The internal marks, on the other hand, have already been posted on government portals and can be directly used to announce the results.
Agreeing to this system, parents have appealed to the government to promote all students based on internal assessment marks.
"Conducting examinations amid the increasing coronavirus cases is not necessary. It only increases the risk of exposure to the virus among students. Instead of postponing them, it is better to promote all class 10 students, by awarding them Average Grade Points on the basis of internal assessments," said N Narayana, president, Telangana Parents’ Association (TPA).
Some teachers’ association have also expressed their happiness over the postponement of the exams and have said that the government should make a decision based on the number of coronavirus cases.
"If the coronavirus does not decrease, the state government should consider promoting all the students and give them certification," said M Ravinder from Telangana Progressive Teachers Federation (TPTF).