Nagpur: Closure of schools and colleges in Nagpur district till at least March 7 means that the board practical exams get pushed ahead. But national level exams, like those for Ignou, JEE etc, will proceed as per schedule.
Practical exams for both state and CBSE board have not started due to different reasons. For the state board, the practical exams are to be conducted a month before the board exams start. Madhusudhan Mude, president of Headmasters’ Association (Nagpur district), said “The SSC and HSC timetable issued by the board is marked as ‘tentative’ and hence, we may get more time to conduct it. The list of external examiners comes from the board and that’s still being finalized.”
For CBSE, schools are yet to receive the list of approved external examiners and observers from the board. Once the list comes, schools have to coordinate for a mutually suitable date with both stakeholders and then arrange for the practical exams.
Principal of a CBSE school said, “The external examiners are also teachers and have to conduct practicals in their own schools. The observers are basically principals so matching their availability is also crucial.”
It’s now clear that no practical exam can now happen before March 7 in Nagpur. All internally evaluated exams will now either be postponed or held online by schools.
National level exams, however, are going ahead as scheduled. On Tuesday, various colleges and private exam centres played host to students appearing for the Indira Gandhi National Open University (Ignou) exams and for the online Joint Entrance Examination (JEE).
P Sivaswaroop, regional director of Ignou Nagpur said, “Due to increasing Corona cases, partial lockdown has been announced in Nagpur and other districts of Vidarbha. I visited centres to check the impact on our exams. The attendance is good. Students and centre officials were informed about precautions to be taken in view of the lockdown.”
JEE online exams are held at both colleges and private centres used exclusively for online exams. Tanjit Chhabra, head of admissions at Resonance (Nagpur), said, “The initial assessment points to low attendance at centres. Since there are more opportunities available, students are probably approaching this as a warm-up test.”