In the wake of galloping COVID-19 cases, the Maharashtra School Education Department on Wednesday decided for mass promotion of Class 9 and 11 students of the state board. The department will soon issue guidelines in this regard. FPJ wrote on April 7, that the decision was expected in a day or two after the School Education Minister Varsha Gaikwad held a meeting on Tuesday.
In case of students of Class 9 there was online teaching in most parts of the state. Due to the closure of schools, the semester, unit tests and practicals were not held. In the case of students of Class 11, the online schools had started in November last year and there was a major issue of valuation of these students. “Therefore, considering the present pandemic, the department has decided to promote students of the state board of Class 9 and 11 without examinations,” a senior department official said.
The decision came days after the department decided to promote students of Class 1 to 8 without examinations due to spurt in the COVID-19 cases in the state. Last year too class 1-8 students were promoted without examinations amid the pandemic.
The department has clarified that the offline exams of Class 10 and 12 of state board will take place as per the schedule except for papers on Saturday, which will be postponed due to weekend lockdown. Gaikwad said the time table of these examinations will be decided after speaking to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray in a day or two.
Gaikwad has received representations from the rural areas for holding offline examinations of Class 10 and 12 as there is a possibility of rise in COVID-19 patients due to migration of people from cities. On the other hand, the minister has also received representations from the cities not to conduct offline examinations but promote the students without examinations during the present pandemic.