June 10: Schools across the country have started preparing for the next academic session, scheduled to get started from mid-June. Recent announcement by the local governments that the schools can publish the final results of their students through internal assessment cleared the way to move in that direction. Local governments made that announcement after the federal government asked schools to enroll their students for the next session from mid-June in a virtual manner.

The federal government also asked the local governments to coordinate with the schools to create a conducive environment for operating classes virtually. That was done because schools, which abruptly closed in March because of the second wave of the cononavirus pandemic, are still unable to conduct in-person classes for the fear of virus’s transmission.

The education department of Bharatpur Metropolitan City has requested schools across the district to evaluate students on the basis of 20 percent from first term examinations, 60 percent from second term examinations and 20 percent from continuous assessment system. It has also asked the schools to publish the result by the end of month of Jestha.

Likewise, the Panauti Municipality, in Kavre district, has asked the private and community schools across the district to make public their students’ results of all grades from internal assessment, barring Grade XIII.

Additionally, Kathamandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has also asked its schools to conduct examinations from alternative modes by June 3 and publish their results by mid-June.

Som Prasad Subedi, KMC Education Officer, said that they asked the schools to evaluate their students on the basis of online examination, offline examination, previous terminal examination, by telephone, by sending questions to the students, or based on any other best alternative module.

Rita Tiwari, headmaster of the Padma Kanya Viddyashram Secondary School in Kathmandu, said they had already published the result of all grades as instructed by the KMC. They did that on the basis of the examinations held just before the closure of schools. Eighty percent of the total evaluation was based on those examinations, while for the rest 20 percent, virtual examinations were conducted, Tiwari said.

These days, schools have been announcing new admissions virtually. They have recently held virtual meetings with guardians and informed them about their plans for making the upcoming academic session more effecive and efficient. “We told the guardains that their children will not be upgraded to higher grades should they don’t clock at least 75 percent attendance in virtual classes. And they have responded positively so far,” Tiwari said.

The central government’s decision to open up schools virtually have cleared the uncertainty surrounding the upcoming academic session. That has provided a much-needed relief to students, teachers, guardians, not to mention the local governments for now. However, whether virtual teaching-learning activities will be as effective as those conducted in in-person setting remain to be seen.

source: risingnepal, 11 June 2021