March Session: Ambiguity over exams of lower class exams, admissions leave parents in distress
Matter under discussion, separate notification to come within weeks’ time: Say Officials
Bhat Imran
Srinagar: The J&K Government order issued for the implementation of the Uniform Academic Calendar (UAC) for both the divisions of the UT from the current session has skipped mention of the examination and admission process for the lower classes in schools.
The move has left the stakeholders including the schools, parents and the students in a dilemma as there is no clarity about holding Term II exams of lower class students.
According to the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), the Government on Wednesday ordered operationalisation of UAC in sync with the Higher Education Department (HED) and National Academic Calendar (NAC) wherein it ordered that the Jammu and Kashmir Board of School Education (JKBOSE) under this calendar will hold annual regular examinations of Class 10th and 12th in Kashmir and Jammu divisions in March and April month.
However, there has been no mention of the conduct of the exams for the lower classes and there is also ambiguity over commencement of new academic sessions for the lower classes.
As per the practice in vogue, the Term II exam of lower classes (primary to class 7th), class 8th and 9th is conducted in October and classification of new classes begins in November respectively.”But the order is silent on all these issues. Schools have no direction whether the exams of lower classes are to be held in March or in October,” said a school teacher, wishing not to be named.
“The Term-II exams of lower classes are held in October and for that only one month is left. So government should come with some order or guidelines in this regard to clear the ambiguity,” he said.
The stakeholders are in a dilemma over holding Term II exams and commencement of the admission process for Kindergarten classes which is usually done in October month.
“Some schools are already doing preparation for admission of kindergarten classes while some are waiting for the government guidelines for the same,” said a private school owner.
The government order issued for holding the Annual exam of class 10th and 12th students in March has created confusion among stakeholders due to the ambiguity in it for lower classes.
“The department took around six months to issue an order for shifting to March session for class 10th and 12th but it seems they have not done the groundwork as the order has skipped mention about lower classes,” one of the private school owners said.
The stakeholders said the government should have issued the guidelines for the lower classes to remove the ambiguity in it.
“All the schools have completed the syllabus but we are not sure when to hold the exams. The government should clear the ambiguity in it as early as possible,” said another school teacher.
Amid the ambiguity over holding lower class exams, a top official in the civil Secretariat told KNO that the government has asked the Director School Education Kashmir (DSEK) to issue separate notification for conduct of lower class exams.
“The notice will be issued in coming days to clear the ambiguity in it,” the official said.
The official also said that the matter is under discussion, soon we well come up with the official statement in this regard—(KNO)
