Would you like to write your final exams in a week’s time, when the holidays have already been declared? When the global pandemic had just finished, and a few people are still recovering from the losses? Should the schools still wait to decide whether the child in question should be promoted to the coming year? Such questions have filled the minds of students who are being promoted to grade 8 and above. The government had taken a decision that the finial exams should still be conducted and that the students would be promoted based on the results. This had caused fear in many of the students’ hearts who had not at all been prepared for such an abrupt return of the examinations.
On the month of April, the examinations in many schools have been cancelled, and the students have been promoted based on the half-yearly or quarterly exams, or have been directly promoted. But on the 21st of May, the government had declared that the pandemic had ended and the schools may be reopened. But they also have given instructions to start examinations immediately within a week. This had caused fear in many students who had cheated throughout this year. Maybe cheating was not the correct way to deal with it, but it would take time to get used to the new teaching method. Many of the students have not had proper devices or WIFI, and had been absent in half of the classes. Many students who were not as quick to catch on as their peers have resorted to more questionable methods, like copying.
Online classes had been the alternative during the pandemic the previous year. First of all, communication was more difficult to understand when the student is not directly with the teacher. Explaining a topic is more difficult too. Most of the students had internet issues and have not been able to attend classes.
In order to not affect the student’s eyesight, the online classes were conducted only for half the time as regular classes would, and this had a massive toll on the efficiency of the lessons. Half of the lessons have not been properly explained as the time was just not enough. Yes, the student could have read on their own, but many students need the teacher to properly explain before they can revise. This is also why a single week is not even nearly sufficient as a whole academic years’ worth of syllabus can’t be done in a span of a week.
People may argue that the syllabus learnt is essential for the next academic year, but the revision would take place at the starting anyway. Also, if the syllabus learnt a whole academic year would not last the summer holidays, how will something learnt in a weeks’ time would be still remembered? Let us hope that the government would take action and cancel exams.