Ggm: Haryana's Board exam proposal spurs protests

Gurugram: With the Haryana government dead-set on holding Board exams for Classes 5 to 8 in April this year confusing students, educators and school administrations — parents of school students in Gurugram on Sunday held protests at Leisure Valley — asking the government to reconsider the proposal.

The protest was spearheaded by parents of students in 12 schools of Gurugram which are governed by the CBSE, CISCE and IB Boards and protesters argued that after 650 days of school closure in light of the pandemic, children are already struggling to overcome learning gaps and that this would not be fair to the students.

A new Board exam will create additional pressure on them, they said. Children are already preparing for their term 2 final exams while dealing with COVID restrictions. Many have not had digital access to classrooms, and have been struggling with hybrid teaching. Trying to prepare for a new Board exam will be impossible for them, they said.

The proposed BSEH (Board of Secondary Education, Haryana) syllabus differs from syllabi being taught in many schools. Students from a large number of schools are not familiar with this syllabus, and it is unfair to expect them to study it in a little over a month, said the protesting parents.

Significantly, ever since the proposal was announced to hold Board exams for the younger classes, both educators and parents are confused about how the system would work. For starters, the strongest argument against the system comes from the fact that not all schools use the same material to teach the same curriculum.

Some schools have different curricula for younger classes, and also design their own internal assessment methods to grade their students. With the new proposal mandating one annual exam for these classes, schools have prominently said they would be in no place to completely overhaul their syllabi and introduce new learning material to their students.

The proposal from the Haryana government says that the annual Board exams for Classes 5-8 will be based on NCERT books but many schools have already said that they do not necessarily follow NCERT/SCERT materials for all classes and all subjects.

The parents protesting on Sunday said they will be presenting their case to the Haryana Education Department and the state Chief Minister.

Importantly, with the prevailing chaos and confusion, school administrations have already challenged the order in the High Court of Punjab and Haryana in Haryana

United Schools & others Vs State of Haryana and others. While the petitioners have sought a stay on the state government's order, this has not been granted yet and the case is posted for the next hearing on Monday next week.