Prolonged winter break effect: Schedule for pre-Board exams gets extended

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Amritsar, January 9

With winter holidays getting extended in Punjab till January 14, the move has also resulted in the schedule for pre-Board examinations, which were supposed to be conducted across all government schools for senior secondary classes, getting extended.

After last Sunday’s announcement by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and as per the orders of Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains, classes of all subjects from Class VIII to Class X are being conducted online in all government and private schools, while senior secondary classes, XI and XII, are being held offline, with teachers teaching regardless of students attending schools.

Meanwhile, the move has invited dissent from teachers of government schools due to the last minute extending of examination schedules for pre-Board in government schools. “The PSEB has already released schedule for Boards which begin from February 13. The pre-Board examinations were scheduled to begin right after the winter break, which earlier was to conclude on January 1.

Now, the pre-Boards will be conducted from January 15 onward and would at least take 10-12 days to conclude. This leaves a very short window for students to prepare for their Board examinations,” shared Germanjit Singh, a physics lecturer from the district. He also added that this academic year has been

shorter due to multiple examinations and activities being conducted throughout the year, forcing teachers to hurry up the completion of syllabus.

“Apart from bimonthly examinations, the term exam conducted in September and December and now the pre-Boards, there have been several activities including visits and study fairs in schools, cutting down on classroom teaching hours. Now, we are being called to schools despite the extreme cold weather to ensure we complete the syllabus,” he said. He appealed to the Education Department to review the winter break schedule from now on, so that completing the syllabus and examination schedule can be drawn up accordingly.

Several teachers also raised the issue of guidelines not being followed by the school heads and principals to exempt teachers teaching right from primary classes to Class X from coming to schools.

According to some members of the Democratic Teachers Front, who teach in government schools, the schools heads in the rural belt around Amritsar and Gurdaspur are calling all master cadre teachers to school, despite the provision only for those teaching senior secondary classes. This should be checked by the department officials, they demanded.