The absence of any instruction regarding the conduct of Higher Secondary half-yearly examinations has been received in different ways by schools across the state of Kerala. Instructions were issued to conduct class-level exams which were accepted by Education Minister V Sivankutty in the meeting held with teachers' associations.
Some schools in the state had the advantage of having a smaller batch size of students studying in higher secondary grades. This meant that the school could ensure a higher percentage of attendance for offline classes. A principal of a school, who wished to remain unidentified, said "Our school's higher secondary division has a batch strength of only 60 students. This meant that we could ensure maximum attendance during the physical classes when school reopened. Even before that, during online classes, the parents ensured that their children did not lag behind due to the infrastructure required to attend virtual sessions. All this meant that the syllabus could be completed well in advance. We were thus able to conduct the evaluation for the students in a systematic way even though the classes started only in November. We conducted them all by ourselves."
The systematic addressing of half-yearly examinations for higher secondary grades was not, however, a shared approach in other schools in the state. "Since the schools started offline classes only in November and that too in separate batches, we were simply not in a position to conduct the half-yearly examinations. The portions of the syllabus covered were just not enough either. It would have placed undue stress on the students besides that of attending classes after such a long time," said the principal of a school in Ernakulam.
It is evident that different schools have taken different approaches to the conduct of higher secondary classes and examinations for students, thus indicating a clear divide in terms of the progress made by some when compared to others.
