Appearing for exam a Herculean task for 297 SSC students

NT NETWORK

Panaji

Studying the syllabus has now become least of the problems for the 297 SSC students, who are residing across the Goan borders, with the main difficulty faced by them being their arrival in Goa to appear for the examination.

The summer 2020 SSC examination will commence on May 21, after being delayed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. 

Altogether 23 sub-centres – 20 sub-centres along the border areas on the Goan side and 3 sub-centres in the main Goan cities – have been exclusively set up for these students by the Goa Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education, for answering their exams.

The Goa Board, predicting that many of such students would not be able to make it to the SSC exam, has a backup plan ready.

“If these students are not able to reach Goa on May 21, then we will be conducting a special supplementary SSC examination for them after the COVID-19-related situation returns to normalcy,” informed a senior Goa Board official, adding that the Goa Board has also decided not to declare the school-wise SSC result, this time.

“This time, the Goa Board will declare student-wise SSC result,” the Goa Board official maintained, pointing out that the reason being failure of some students to make it to the examination due to the travelling restrictions could reflect on the result of few schools.

Incidentally, the Goa Board had requested the respective schools to arrange the travel of their students from across the border to Goa for answering the SSC exam. However, many schools did not heed the request, as the process of applying to the office of the North Goa/ South Goa District Collectors for travel permits is quite cumbersome.

The problem of travel of such students to Goa becomes further complicated, as the moment they arrive in Goa, they will face COVID-19 test followed by 14-day institutional/ home quarantine. This would mean they will have to seek further permission from the District Collector to travel from their place of quarantine to the examination hall, during the period of examination.

In fact, two students from across the border have already arrived in Vasco, and have been placed under home quarantine.

There are altogether seven papers to be answered by the students at the SSC examination, which means that these students will have to visit the examination hall seven times from the location of their quarantine. 

Meanwhile, a petition before the High Court of Bombay at Goa, arguing that government has taken decision to conduct the SSC and HSSC examinations in undue haste, awaits hearing.

Nearly 20,000 students in the age group of 15/16 years will be appearing for the SSC examination.