Boards just two weeks away, students told to return tabs in Haryana

GURGAON: Students of classes 10 and 12 have not taken kindly to the government’s directive, asking them to submit their digital tablets and SIM cards provided last year under the e-Adhigam scheme back to the school. If they don’t, the students won’t get their admit cards for board exams that begin on February 27.
Komal Khatana (15), a Class 10 student of a government school in Damdama, says she was banking on the online study material for exam preparation.
“What’s the point of giving us tablet devices and asking us to adapt to online learning when we cannot access it to prepare for the exams? They could have taken it after the exams were over. We are not going to run away with these tablets,” she said on Monday.
Khatana is among the thousands of students who have been asked to return their digital devices and SIM cards across the state.
In its order last week, the school education department said most of the students giving boards may be migrating to other schools after the exams or going on to college education.
“Since these tablet devices are a property of the department, it is prudent for us to collect them before the examinations for the next batches. Class 10 students of high schools and Class 12 students of senior secondary schools have to submit their tablet devices, SIM cards, and chargers to their schools to avail admit cards for the exams. Students of Class 11 can keep the devices with them, but the schools have to check that these are safe and not tampered with,” said a senior education department official said.
Tablets with 2GB free data and Personalized Adaptive Learning (PAL) software were given to around five lakh students of classes 10, 11 and 12 as part of the E-Adhigam scheme, launched by chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar in May 2022. The scheme was meant to promote digital learning amidst a shortage of teaching staff across Haryana.
According to the SOP, the tablets given out would remain the property of the education department and students could keep them as long as they were enrolled at the government school.
But students say that taking back the devices right before the exams will hamper their preparations.
Some teachers and a section of senior officials in the education department, too, questioned the rationale for such a move.
“This is an ill-conceived move. The purpose of these devices was to enhance learning and improve the performance of our students in board exams. Throughout the year, a dedicated team of SCERT and the education department worked to create and source online content that could help students better understand subjects such as English, mathematics and science. If the students are deprived of these lessons just before the board exams, the purpose stands defeated,” said a senior official at the Directorate of School Education.
“And it’s not that these students can run away with the tablets. Most of the students and their families have been linked with the Parivar Pehchan Patra (PPP) and all their details with the government,” the official added.