The school education department is exploring options to hold Term I exams of lower class students. An official said the department was holding deliberations with the CEOs and other officials to decide about the mode of exams. “The decision will be taken on basis of the number of students who have been contacted to take online classes and avail curriculum based e-content which is available on the website of the directorate,” an official said. Director School Education Kashmir (DSEK) Muhammad Younis Malik said they were working out the modalities for holding the Term-I exams. “We can shift from descriptive to MCQ type of exams. Another option is to evaluate students on the basis of continuous comprehensive evaluation. Nothing has been finalized yet,” he said. “We are collecting the details of students who have been contacted by the department amid the lockdown period and decision for holding exams will be taken accordingly. Our concern is that there should be no disparity with any students regarding the decision for holding exams,” said Malik. According to official figures there are 6.50 lakh students enrolled in government schools across Kashmir out of which four lakh students have been contacted by the department during the lockdown. “We have to also think about other students who don’t have access to smart phones or internet,” the Director said. He said they have adopted a multi-pronged approach to continue the online education system amid the continuous closure of schools in J&K. “We are also considering an option for holding MCQ type exam on Google docs format under which students have to mark the option and submit the paper with just one click of mouse. Our only reservation is that all the students should be covered conveniently with whatever decision is taken for holding exams,” said Malik. The department has also done a sampling of students of Class 8 to decide the mode of exams. “We have 41,970 students in class 8 in all government schools across the Valley. We have been able to contact 33,000 students for taking online classes through different digital formats,” he said, adding the details of students of other classes was also being collected to decide on the mode of examination.
