There is no focus area, but annual school-based examinations for State schools will give priority to initial content of textbooks for preparation of question papers.
Workshops for preparation of question papers being conducted by District Institutes of Education and Training (DIETs) will conclude on Wednesday. The question papers have to be handed over to the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) the same day.
The government had announced the decision to conduct year-end examinations for classes 1 to 9 three weeks ago.
The SCERT has brought out guidelines for the year-end evaluation of the students. Though questions can be set from the entire content, priority should be given to portions taught initially. Questions that all students can attempt must be included in the question paper to the extent possible. Each section in the question paper should have 50% extra questions. The question paper pattern followed in the previous years should be adopted this time too.
In the case of lower primary students (classes 1 to 4), worksheets will be used to ascertain if students have achieved the desired learning outcomes. Worksheets prepared by the Samagra Shiksha, Kerala, last year can be updated and used. These worksheets have to be made available by Samagra to schools before March 22 for a time-bound evaluation process.
Question papers for classes 5 to 7 have to be prepared in workshops conducted by the Samagra, printed, and delivered to schools.
Question papers for classes 8 and 9 will be prepared under the SCERT with the support of DIETs in all 14 districts through workshops. The ready-to-print question papers have to be handed over to the Samagra Shiksha by Friday so as to be printed and provided to schools.
Question papers have to be prepared for English, Tamil, and Kannada medium students through translation. Question papers for classes 5 to 9 for Tamil medium will be translated by the Palakkad DIET and for Kannada by the Kasaragod DIET.
Annual evaluation in arts, sports, and work experience for students of classes 5 to 7 has to be done at the school level employing question papers.
The final dates for the examinations for classes 1 to 9 are yet to be announced. Though the government was earlier toying with an early April schedule, the possibility of conducting them ahead of the public examinations at the end of March is being explored.
