Eyeing next batch, Delhi now plans curriculum accordingly

New Delhi: With the Central Board of Secondary Education now working on an alternative assessment method for Class 12 students, after having cancelled their final examinations, the Delhi government's education team has already moved on to plans for next year's Class 10 and 12 cohorts, with Education Minister Manish Sisodia saying that their team will prepare a "foolproof plan" in this regard and submit it to the CBSE and the Centre when it is ready.

Deputy Chief Minister Sisodia said, "It is time to move on to next year. We cannot deny that another academic session could be COVID affected and we need to plan before it's too late once again."

"The current session should be planned and students should be prepared. Internals, online and semi online activities should be as per that plan rather than preparing students differently and then saying we will not pass them without taking exams. I feel if we do not start now, it will be again too late for next year and will then lead to an unprepared and knee-jerk decision," the education minister explained in an interview with Press Trust of India.

His remarks came a day after the Centre announced the cancellation of class 12 board exams by CBSE in view of the pandemic situation, following which the ICSE also cancelled its Class 12 board examinations.

Sisodia, who had earlier told the Ministry of Education that going ahead with exams before vaccinating the students will be a disaster, said there can still be no second thought about it.

"Exams or no exams, there cannot be a second thought about need to vaccinating students. The stocks are so low that we are not able to vaccinate people within age group of 18-44. All of this has to be done soon, the trials for vaccines for children and getting Pfizer vaccine for them, all of this has to be done on priority," he said.

In fact, the Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government has made its position on vaccinating the younger population steadfastly clear — the sooner the country's younger population is vaccinated, the sooner they will be able to contribute to the nation's economic rebuilding.

Sisodia also reiterated that the CBSE should announce its policy for evaluating students of class 12 at the earliest.

"They should come up with unbiased and objective criteria at the earliest so students can start looking forward to undergraduate admissions," he said.

Significantly, according to several reports, the Central Board of Secondary Education might be considering an alternative assessment method similar to the one employed for promoting those in the 10th Standard — based on the performance of the students in internal school examinations and assessment metrics.

However, even as tensions rise among parents and students over what the new assessment method might look like, students in the 12th Standard heaved a sigh of relief when the decision was announced. This was because the pandemic had left nearly 1.5 crore students in this grade in a virtual limbo — leading to them spending almost one-and-a-half years in the same grade.