Ahead of boards, private schools to call students for practical sessions

Private schools in the city have started calling students of board classes (classes 10 and 12) for practical sessions and revision, following clarity on the timeline of board exams. While some schools started practical sessions this week, other schools will be calling students in small batches for classes from next week.

Education minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank had earlier announced that CBSE board examinations for classes 10 and 12 will be conducted between May 4, 2021 and June 10, 2021. The practical examination will begin on March 1 and the results will be announced by July 15, 2021. Following the announcement, schools had said that they would initiate practical sessions from January.

Schools across the country were closed in March last year amid the outbreak of Covid-19. Voluntary visits to schools for doubt-clearing sessions were initiated by the Haryana government in September ast year followed by regular classes from November 2 for students in classes 9 to 12. While most government schools saw students turning up for these sessions, private schools had largely continued with online classes. In November, the Haryana government decided to shut schools till November 30 amid a spike in Covid-19 cases among students of government schools. Government schools reopened from December 14 for students of classes 10 and 12 and from December 21 for classes 9 and 11.

Delhi Public School, Sector 45, initiated practical sessions for class 12 students in batches from Thursday. The school has capped the number of visiting students at 12 to meet physical distancing concerns. “We are calling students in three batches, one each during morning, midday and afternoon. The sessions are nearly for two hours. While the practical sessions take up one-and-a-half hours, the remaining time is used by students for interacting with each other. We have kept some time for interaction since students are keen on meeting their teachers and classmates,” said Aditi Misra, school principal.

Salwan Public School, Sector 15, started remedial classes and practical sessions for students on Friday. Only half the students from board classes were asked to visit the school on Friday. “Today being the first day, around half the students visited the school for sessions. We are expecting the strength to go up from Monday,” said Rashmi Malik school principal. She said that the requirement of a medical certificate was acting as a deterrent to an extent. “While we have our own indemnity bond and seek consent from parents, we are also seeking a medical fitness certificate as sought by the government. More students are likely to join after getting the health clearance,” said Malik.

The school has capped the number of students in a single classroom at 15 in view of physical distancing norms. Students of different classes are only allowed in the lab in turns to avoid crowding. “We called two sections of class 10 today. These students were accommodated in four different classrooms so that there is ample physical distancing among students,” said Malik.

She said that the school would monitor the feedback it receives from parents to these classes before taking a decision on calling students of class 9 and 11 for physical classroom sessions. “Today was only the first day. We will monitor the feedback next week. If everything is comfortable, we might start calling students from class 9 and 11 too since their exams are coming up,” said Malik.

Nidhi Kapoor, the principal of Euro International School, said that the school will be starting classes for students in classes 9 to 12 from Monday. “Classes will take place from 10am till 2pm. We have mentioned students’ roll numbers on the desks and only a select number of students will stay in a classroom,” said Kapoor. She said that besides practical sessions, revision classes for theory subjects will also take place Monday onwards.

Aparna Erry, principal of the DAV Public School in Sector 14, said that the school would be calling students from classes 10-12 from next Monday.