Chennai
Most of the private schools across the State were holding online classes since June due to lockdown. The self-financing institutions have also held quarterly exams in August after getting permission from the School Education department. However, no guidelines were issued by the government on how to go about it.
Now, after permitting half-yearly exams, the Education Directorate concerned has issued detailed rules on how to conduct the test online without putting pressure on the students.
However, the government has cancelled half-yearly exams for government and government-aided schools since most of them were unable to conduct online classes since many students, especially in the rural areas, do not have access to either Android mobile phones or internet connections.
A senior official from the School Education Department told DT Next that private schools should ensure that the question paper should be set only from the portions covered in the online classes, besides not make the exam compulsory for students.
Stating that usually certain private schools collect half-yearly exam fees, he said the management of self-financing institutions were strictly instructed that they should not collect fees for the online exam.
"Also, certain students might not have paid full fees due to the prevailing situation," he said adding "they should also be allowed to attend the half-yearly exams".
Clarifying that marks scored in the online half-yearly exams should not be published, the official said: "The schools were also instructed only to advise the students, who scored poorly."
The official said all the schools have also been asked to submit a detailed report to the respective district education office about the steps taken for conducting online exams. "After conducting online exams, private schools should also declare half-yearly holidays for the students and teachers," he added.
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