“Once we start preparing for examinations with a particular date in mind, getting an extended period only de-motivates us and we lose the momentum gained so far,” rues Arpita G, reacting to postponement of the SSC (class 10) examinations.
The State Board of Secondary Education has pushed back the dates to facilitate smooth conduct of the local body elections scheduled to be conducted in three phases from March 21 to March 29.
The students will now have to wait for the elections to pass before they take their tests. “Deferring of the examinations can never be a boon to students who are into serious preparation and scrupulously follow a time-table,” says T. Mohan Rao, a 10th class student from Gowtham English Medium School.
Akshay Jain from Kurapati Chandrasekhar Rao English Medium School at One Town is upset for a different reason. “There are a couple of weddings back home in Rajasthan and I so wanted to attend them. Postponement of the examinations will disturb our travel plans,” he laments.
Teachers are also a worried lot. “There will be no classes before the examinations as the teachers will be on election duties. They will first undergo training followed by election duty and then counting of votes. This gap will dilute the students’ exam preparedness,” admits P. Babu Reddy, State general secretary of United Teachers’ Federation (UTF).
Training for teachers
The State government’s ambitious plan to introduce English as a medium of instruction in schools from the next academic year necessitated teachers to undergo training in the integrated communication skill programme, imparted by the agency of Cambridge University faculty roped in by the State. Over 6,000 municipal teachers from across the 13 districts were off their classroom teaching to attend training. This was followed by another orientation programme. “There are fears of a dip in the 10th class results this year for many such reasons. Now the decision to postpone exams will do no good to students who are eager to be done away with them and slip into a relaxation mode,” says S. Ramakrishna, State president of Municipal Teachers’ Federation (MTF).
He says the government should consider exempting 10th class teachers from election duties.
“Politics have taken precedence over education and this is not a good sign,” said a parent of a 10th class student, dismayed by the decision.
