A section of the students seen at the entrance to Rosary Higher Secondary School on Saturday. Santosh Mirajkar
MARGAO: Even as the beleaguered students of Std XII waited outside the Rosary Higher Secondary School hoping for a decision on internal examinations, beginning from Monday, Principal Victoria De Souza insisted that the higher secondary school is only implementing a circular issued by the Goa Board in connection with the examination.
It may be noted that the fate of Std XII offline examinations at Rosary Higher Secondary School scheduled for August 23 (Monday) hangs in balance after the Deputy Collector, Margao on Saturday issued directions to the higher secondary schools to strictly comply with the South Goa District Magistrate’s order issued under Section 144 of the CrPC in respect of the examinations.
Victoria told the media that the Goa Board’s circular dated August 2 vis-à-vis assessment of students, had clearly pointed out that the assessment can be done in either online or offline mode. “Since it is an open circular wherein you could choose any mode, the Principal governing Council at its meeting had discussed the issue and everybody felt that the online assessment mode is not a valid system of assessment. We have had the assessment last year, two examinations in offline mode and the final examination in online mode and we have seen the outcome of the online examination. Hence, many of the principals felt that online mode is not a valid system of examination”, she said.
The Rosary HSSC principal further said many principals felt that they take a decision on the mode of examination since the Goa Board had issued an open circular wherein the institutions were given the option to hold the examination in online or offline mode. “Keeping in mind the Goa Board’s circular and the decision of the Principal’s Governing Council, we have decided to conduct the examination in offline mode for our students”, she said.
As far as the Covid SOP is concerned, Victoria said the institution had made arrangements to put SOPs in place. She recalled that Technical Education had recently conducted GCET examinations, wherein thousands of students answered following safety measures.
“Taking all these aspects into account, we felt it was fair enough to have a fair system of evaluation for the four streams -- Arts, Commerce, Science and Vocational. We had fixed different time for students of these streams, including morning and afternoon sessions to ensure there’s no mixing of students. That’s not all. We had spread the examination across two weeks to comply with the SOPs and to go strictly by the circular issued by the Goa Board”, she added.
To a question, the principal said no parent has approached her or the school administration to express their apprehensions over the conduct of offline examinations. “It was the responsibility of the parents to first approach the school if they had any apprehension. Without approaching the school, it was not right to go to the media. One parent had approached me with her apprehension, but I told the parent not to worry, promising that the student can answer the exam after one or two months”, she said.
To a question on obtaining prior permission from the district Collector to hold the examination offline, the principal said the Goa Board’s circular does not mention that the institution is required to obtain permission from the Collector. “Nowhere in the circular it is mentioned that we have to take permission from the Collector”, she added.
