Maharashtra: As student protests intensify, state stays firm on holding board exams offline

“Exams can’t be held online but we are here to make the pro-cess smooth for students. We have already given several concessions such as reducing syllabus and granting additional time to write papers. If required, we will discuss with experts and bring more such options. Safety of students is our utmost priority and I appeal that this should not lead to any confusion among students preparing to appear for board examinations,” said state school Education Minister Varsha Gaikwad.

Even as the protest has been criticised by many from the education sector, it has led to major discussions on politicisation of board examination. According to educationists, canceling the board exam can only have a negative impact. Instead, they say, the board should have taken proactive steps to be prepared with different options. Jayawant Kulkarni, a senior teacher from the city, said, “The entire year, the state board did not take any step to ensure a smooth board exam or offer options to ensure transparent evaluation. We understand that the vast mode of state board exam does not allow easy transition to online mode; but it should have been ready with alternative modes of evaluation for situations like these. Options such as term-exams, project work or even conducting exams at an individual division-level could have been explored for it.”

Many teachers felt that the demands being made by the students were not justified and would harm them in the long run. “This protest took place in some cities where schools began offline operations in the month of October. Whereas in rural parts of Maharashtra, the offline operations began from July 2021. Students and parents are already prepared for the offline board examination. The syllabus was already slashed by 25 per cent, considering the situation, and papers have been set for a new pattern. Now, reviewing all this will not be possible at the last moment,” said Madhav Suryawanshi, a senior teacher and director of Shikshan Vikas Manch, which holds several discussions on developments in the education sector.

A similar protest was held in Dadar in Mumbai last year, when protesting students had demanded either cancellation of the state board examination or shifting it to online mode of evaluation. The exam, which was initially postponed, was later cancelled by all boards due to Covid concerns.

Learning from the past experience, non-state boards divided the annual pattern of board examination into two separate terms to hold exams in offline format. One term exam has already been held for non-state boards in offline format before the third wave of Covid-19 began. However, Maharashtra State Board insisted on an annual pattern, reiterating that offline exams will be possible this year in the months of March and April.

When contacted, Chairman of the Maharashtra State Board, Sharad Gosavi, denied any possibility of conducting board examinations online. “It is not practical to hold such a huge exam online with lakhs of students appearing for it. This has been discussed in the past too,” he said.

Protesting students have, however, claimed that holding offline exams at this point of time is unsafe. “Even as adults are fully vaccinated, their meetings are held online. We are not yet fully vaccinated, but are expected to appear for an offline exam. This is unfair. Moreover, when the academic year was mostly online and schools have taught us in an online format, it will be difficult for us to appear for exams offline,” said a protesting student.

Students like Saurav Saha, who supported the protest, said that the issue of offline exams had been raised earlier as well but the state did not pay heed to the concerns of students. “Some letters have been sent in the past raising concerns around offline board examination. But there was no response,” said Saha.

A large number of students, however, said that the insistence on online exams was going to harm students. “Last year, when the exam was cancelled, a formula was used to declare results which included the combined academic performance of a student from class IX and X. This was a disadvantage to those who may not have had good results in Class IX,” said a student who was opposed to the protest, but did not want to be named.