West Bengal students in dark about new-normal syllabi

DILEMMA ABOUT DATES OF FINAL EXAMINATION AND REVISED SYLLABUS. The expected schedule for both Madhyamik and HS is in February and March in 2021. If the students don’t know their syllabus, how can we expect them to appear in the examinations in such a short notice?

SOMDATTA BASU   |  TNN | 8 October 2020 | KOLKATA: While both the Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) and Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) have curtailed the syllabus, those studying in the schools affiliated to the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education and the Higher Secondary Council don’t know the portions that are to be omitted from the curriculum, seven months after suspension of face-to-face interactions in classes. 

The dilly dally by the Board and Council, conducting the public examinations, has left the Madhyamik and Higher Secondary examinees, who are due to appear for the examinations in 2021, in the lurch. 

(TimesView: Quick dissemination of information about key decisions is important. Much of education has become distance-learning, which comes with its own share of tension and misgivings. Students (and teachers) should be spared any uncertainty as far as possible; but they, too, should keep in mind that even government agencies are grappling with their own share of problems as they try to navigate through the new normal.)

“Though the education minister Partha Chatterjee requested the syllabus expert committee of school education to look into the matter and reduce the syllabus because of the pandemic it yielded no results-.Students and schools have no idea about which topics will have to be removed. The expected schedule for both Madhyamik and HS is in February and March in 2021. If the students don’t know their syllabus, how can we expect them to appear in the examinations in such a short notice?” questioned an aggrieved teacher of a government school. 

Students are also in a fix over the schedule of the selection test, which is scheduled after the Durga Puja vacation. “Will the examinations be held on time? Even 45 days before the selection test, they are unaware of the curtailed syllabus,” said the headmaster of a school. 

Students are also worried that the topics, which will be eliminated by the expert committee, may have already been taught by several schools. 

“The expert committee will have to remove the topics having no importance in the national entrance examinations. Else, if those relevant portions are omitted, we shall have to take out additional time to prepare for the engineering and medical entrance examinations,” said an HS examinee. 

A source in the education secretariat at Bikash Bhavan indicated that while a section of the Madhyamik Board officials are still hopeful about conducting the examinations in February, the HS Council is gearing up to push back the Higher Secondary examinations (Ucchya-Madhyamik) to June. 

“The assembly elections in 2021are likely to be held between April and May. Usually, examinations are pre-poned because of the polls. This year it seems unlikely due to the pandemic,” said the source.