No offline exams till 8th std in Delhi govt schools, assessment to be on projects

New Delhi: The Directorate of Education (DoE) on Wednesday issued guidelines to the state government schools in the Capital for the assessment of the students up to Class VIII. The new guidelines do away with offline examinations and instead it has directed schools to grade students based on their projects and assignments and the results of which will be declared on March 31.

The new guidelines are applicable to the government-run and aided schools for the academic session 2020-21 in order to ease the assessment process in light of the Covid pandemic as schools have been closed since the lockdown which has deeply affected the learning process.

"Even though the offline and online teaching activities continued it was still not the same, therefore, the government has taken this step," a senior official from the Education Department of the Delhi government told Millennium Post adding that the traditional method of assessment has been removed for students of Class III-VIII and instead a subject wise assessment will be conducted.

However, whether the new method of assessment will continue in the coming years will be decided later after the current session is over but the department is considering it.

The link for online entry of marks for Classes III to VIII will be available between March 15-25 following which it will be closed. All the currently enrolled students of Classes Nursery to II shall be promoted to the next Class in the Academic Session 2021-22, the newly issued guidelines stated.

"The worksheets and assignments that were given in this academic session along with online classes was the only learning process for the students and therefore, it is only fair to assess them based on that," the official added.

"Since no classroom teaching — learning has taken okay at the Primary and Middle level, the formal mode of pen & paper assessment is replaced by assessment based on subject wise Assignment/Projects for Classes III to VIII for all Govt. and Govt. Aided schools..," the guidelines stated.

For students of Classes III to V, assessment will be based on worksheets and other modes of assessment on 30 marks, along with assignments given during winter break which will also be assessed on 30 marks, while assignments or projects given between March 1-15 will be assessed on 40. For students of Classes VI to VIII it will be based on 50 marks while worksheets will be assessed on 20 marks and assignments given during Winter break will be assessed on 30 marks, the guidelines elaborated.

The issued guidelines also stated that the Head of Schools have to ensure that subject teachers assess students based on the work done during the Covid-19 pandemic and not ask parents or students to submit or re-submit the assignments that were given earlier. As for the assignments that are to be given between March 1 and 15, teachers can call parents and hand them hard copies, in case the student does not have access to online methods of learning, the guidelines mentioned.