“Schools cannot violate the guidelines issued by the department and the special relief commissioner. If any school is found violating the guidelines, strict action will be taken against them,” said Bishnupada Sethi, secretary of school and mass education.
The Directorate of Secondary Education on Wednesday issued a show cause notice to DAV Public School, Chandrashekharpur for violating the guidelines regarding conduct of periodic assessment in offline mode from February 12 and serving notices to students and parents. “Due to the suspension of offline classes for a long time, many students may face socio-emotional issues and lack of preparation to face offline exams soon after the school reopens. Conducting exams in offline mode can be a cause of stress for the students. This action on your part is in contravention of the direction contained in the Government Orders,” the show cause notice said.
The notice also mentions that, as per the government order it is clearly mentioned that, students will have the option to take the exam in offline or online or hybrid mode.
However, when contacted by the school authorities, they said that it was a printing mistake on the notice, but the online notice issued to the parents has both the options. “We have revised the notice and have already sent it to the parents,” school officials said.
The Directorate of Elementary Education on Wednesday also issued a notice to Loyola School to comply with the government’s guidelines on reopening of schools after protesting against not having both online and offline exam modes.
Schools in the city said that more than 70% of students of classes 1st to 9th are opting for the online examination. Ahead of the final exam, some schools in the city have started issuing notices to the parents for their consent for the offline exam. In case the parents have opted for the online test, they are expected to give reasons for the same.
“We took the opinion of the parents for online, offline or hybrid exams. We are surprised to see that a large number of students and parents are opting for the online mode of examination. Maybe in the last two years they have become comfortable attending classes and taking exams in online mode at home. There is also less attendance in offline classes as compared to government schools,” said Nilkanth Panigrahi, principal of Sai International School.
Until all children are vaccinated, parents are also worried about sending their children to school. Although daily COVID cases have dropped significantly and child COVID patients have recovered quickly, parents fear that young children may not follow safety rules in the classroom. “This is the reason why most of the children opted for online exams. “When children return to school after a gap of two years, they need some time to adjust to offline or physical classes,” said Sumitra Biswas, a parent at Loyola School.
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