Teachers upset over schedule of annual exam & PATs

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: The different teachers' unions were upset over the schedule of the annual examination, Period Periodic Assessment Tests (PAT) and Comprehensive Tests to be conducted by the Education Department for students from standard third to 9th across the State.

Students will appear for the PATs and annual examination between April 8 and 25 simultaneously. The State Council of Educational Research and Training released the schedule of annual examinations and comprehensive tests while the education department asked all the schools to hold the annual examination during the same period.

The teachers' unions feel that the PATs should be conducted first and then annual examinations. They feel that arranging both annual examinations and remedial tests simultaneously would affect assessment and the preparations of students' annual examination reports.

In a memorandum submitted to the education department, Akhil Bhartiya Urdu Shikshak Sangh (ABUSS), one of the teachers' unions stated that the teachers have to prepare all annual records, evaluate answer books, prepare and evaluate the results after the annual session examination and also distribution progress report of the students.

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“With the onset of summer, water shortages have a major impact on the health of students. In schools in the State, examinations for classes 1 to 9 are usually conducted at the school level at the end of March or in the first week of April. If the annual exams are completed at the beginning of April, it will be convenient for students and parents. In this way, instead of organising the examination at the end of the year, the exams should be started at the end of March and concluded in the first week of April,” said Sajin Ahmed, the founder of ABUSS.