In the hope of conducting them offline, many schools in West Bengal have delayed or postponed their pre-board exams this year. According to a report in The Telegraph, the schools are aiming for a date in February to conduct these exams, which are usually held in December or January, in the hopes that most of the students, who will be within the age group of 15 to 18 years, will be fully vaccinated by that time.
In fact, some schools have even asked their students to furnish vaccination certificates in order to ascertain the rates of inoculation. The reason being cited behind these delays is to give students some writing practice and a hands-on experience of attempting an exam in-person, which, given the COVID-19 pandemic, is something they haven't done in a while now. Last year, students were promoted without in-person examinations.
To add to that, the CBSE and ICSE boards have also made changes in the exam pattern, splitting the paper in two semesters/terms. The first term exam, which was in the Multiple Choice Questions format took place in December for both boards, right before the third wave hit the country.
Now, pre-boards for the second term are being delayed in the hope that the virus runs its course in this wave by early/mid-February, and students are able to get their vaccinations done in the meantime.
While some schools such as South City International are yet to announce a date, after having scheduled the exam for February 1 and then pushing it back, others such as St James' School have tentatively made provisions for conducting online pre-boards in the first week of February, in the hopes that they will be able to switch to offline exams by that time, said The Telegraph in a report.
