Fear looms over ‘lost’ art of writing before exams

Bhubaneswar: Parents and teachers have expressed concern over students’ poor and slow writing skills and lack of concentration among other such problems even six months after resumption of offline classes in schools.
Even though schools are trying to revive the skills among students through practice sessions, guardians apprehend that kids would struggle in the half-yearly exam to be held this month in offline mode in several city schools.
“My son does not want to write a single sentence. We tried various means to bring his writing habit back but so far nothing has worked. For the past two years, children did not write during online classes and answered only multiple-choice questions. This is why they lost the skill,” said Kuntala Behera, mother of a Class-VI student.
Teachers said students have lost speed and accuracy also while writing.
“More than 50% of students in all classes have this problem. Despite practice sessions in schools, students are either reluctant of afraid to write,” said Hitakankhi Khuntia, a teacher.
Many students are struggling to write essay-type answers, a section of teachers said.
“We cannot give marks if a child does not write anything. It has become a serious problem with teachers and parents blaming each other,” said Rutuparna Sahu, another teacher.