Mumbai schools seek 50% weightage for Class 10 internal exams

Worried that schools in the city will not be allowed to reopen soon due to the rising number of Covid-19 cases, schools are now requesting the state education department to reduce the weightage of Class 10 board exams for this year.

In the last few days, many teachers and principals have requested the department to give 50% weightage to internal exams and the remaining 50% to the written board exams. “Students have very little time to prepare for the board exams now. They need the practice to write exams and require face-to-face classes if they have to write the exams. Since schools are still closed for physical classes, the government must consider changing the evaluation model,” said Rajesh Pandya, vice-president of the Teachers’ Democratic Front.

While schools in other parts of the state reopened for Classes 9 to 12, those in the city are still not allowed to reopen pending approval from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). Schools under consulates and embassies in Mumbai have been allowed to reopen from January 18, while other schools remain shut until further notice.

Principals said pointed out that city students will suffer due to the delay. “For the entire state, there will be a single board exam with a common syllabus and the same question papers. But students from the city have not got any practice, while those elsewhere have been attending schools for nearly three months now. This is unfair,” said the principal of a civic school in the eastern suburbs.

Currently, the written component for the board exams is 80%, and the internal component, which includes orals and practicals, is 20%, in each subject.

As per a recent survey conducted by Jaywant Kulkarni, a teacher from Gandhi Bal Mandir high school in Kurla, 83% of students in Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai want internal evaluations to be 50% of the total weightage of the board exams.