Telangana: Uncertainty looms large on grading SSC students

Hyderabad: Following cancellation of the SSC exams, uncertainty and contradiction fill the air over how marks should be finalised. There remains no clarity in the Broad of Secondary Education, Telangana State (BSET) regarding formative assessment and working days of SSC students. Meanwhile the teachers are waiting for the government to clear the air over, even as the situation gets tricky.

After the State Government announced the cancellation of SSC examinations, the school managements are uncertain over the conduct of internal assessments - Formative Assessments-2 (FA-2) and Summative Assessment (SA-1 & 2) for class X. The confusion pertains regarding pre-final examinations and other assessments between the school managements and the Department of School Education.

Meanwhile, a few schools have conducted the formative and summative assessments but refuse to go on record declaring that the State Government has not provided a proper Academic calendar this year. Hence, the schools have conducted internal assessments on their own.

Last year, several schools had uploaded the internal assessment marks of the Summative Assessment-1 and Formative Assessment (1&2) like projects on the school education portal. But, during the current academic year many schools are yet to upload the pre-final examination assessments, the official added. However, since the last working day of the academic year is May 26 whether the students will be asked to submit any assignments to consider them on par with the pre-final examination needs clarity the official said.

Speaking to The Hans India, Y Shekhar Rao, State president of Telangana Recognised School Management Association, said that the government announced only formative assessment and the budget private schools will update the marks by April 26. Around 1.5 lakh students FA-1 marks were updated on Friday. "On Thursday we conducted the last online class for students as it was considered the last working day for them. However, we have no plans on conducting pre final examinations and FA-2," he said. Contradicting his own statement he says that the State Government has not announced a proper academic calendar schedule. "Many private schools have conducted all the internal Assessments – 1 & 2 but it is not countable and not recorded. We are clueless on how the government will finalize the marks when no assessment has happened." he added.

District Education Officer R Rohini said that we are unsure of FA-2 and pre final examinations as for now we have asked schools to update the assessment they have conducted. "We have asked the schools to update the internal assessment marks-FA-1 as they did not conduct any pre-final examinations and FA-2, we are yet to receive clarity on the last working days of students and we are unsure about how much weightage these internal assessment will have on their overall." she added.

Vice-Principal of Chaitanya Techno School said that the FA-2 Projects have been assigned to the students of class X and we will submit the marks on time. Meanwhile, Telangana State United Teachers' Federation (TSUTF) said that due to closure of schools in the month of March, schools could not conduct the assessments and pre-final examinations as not all students can attend the examinations following technical difficulties especially government school children.