Gujarat: More classrooms needed for exams

AHMEDABAD: After weighing several options like shortening exams and conducting them in multiple-choice question (MCQ) format, the Vijay Rupani government has decided to conduct Class XII board exams for the full three hours in the regular format.
The exams, to be held from July 1, will be conducted with precautions in place for Covid-19, such as social distancing rules. As a result, more classrooms will be needed compared to last year, when the exams were held in 16,000 classrooms.
While the chief minister has instructed the state education department that examination centres should be close to students’ homes, the demand from parents and schools to keep exam centres at schools the students are enrolled in, has not been considered.
The state government on Tuesday said decided to conduct the exams even with the prevailing Covid-19 situation in view of the larger interest of the 6.83 lakh students in the state.
The decision was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by chief minister Rupani. In view of the current Covid situation in the state, after long deliberations, the state government announced on Tuesday in a media statement.
Giving details, Gujarat education minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama said that about 6,83,000 students will take the Class XII exams. Of them,140,000 students will be of the science stream and 543,000 will be of the general stream, it said.
At the meet, CM Rupani gave clear instructions to the education department to strictly follow Covid-19 protocols while conducting the examinations.
The education minister said the examination will be conducted according to the traditional system. For the Science stream, Part I of the exam, worth 50 marks will be multiple-choice questions (MCQ) using the optical mark reader (OMR) method. Part II will be descriptive answers, worth 50 marks. The exams will be 3 hours long.
For General stream students, the papers will be in the descriptive format and will be worth 100 marks. “The education department has also been given instructions to ensure that students maintain social distancing, wear masks, and follow the ‘Corona Transition Control Guidelines’ which stipulate the use of sanitizers, temperature scanners,” Chudasama said.
“It was also decided to increase the number of examination centres in the state,” the statement said.
For the examinations of both streams – a maximum of 20 students will be allowed in one classroom. Every examination centre will be equipped with CCTV cameras.
It was also decided that for students unable to take the upcoming exams due to Covid-19 or for any other unavoidable reasons, fresh examinations with a new time-table and fresh exam question papers will be conducted after 25 days. The exams for repeater students of Class X will also be conducted in the similar manner, the education minister added.