Schools in the city that would plan their calendar a year or more in advance are now finding it difficult to plan even a month ahead.
Several schools who had in December planned to have in-person final exams are not sure the format in which they will be able to conduct the exam and at least one of them has sent a message to parents saying they will take the decision later.
At least two schools had planned to conduct tests in January in school, which had to be changed to online because of the Covid situation.
Since there is so much uncertainty, the school is unable to plan even a month in advance, a head said.
In one institution, a parent wrote to the school asking when the final exams would be scheduled but the school could not give a definite date.
“We are unable to announce a date of final exams even a month in advance because there is so much uncertainty. We would want to conduct in-person exams but we can take that decision only if there is a significant downward trend of Covid cases,” said Amita Prasad, the director of Indus Valley World School.
Julien Day School Ganganagar has sent a message to parents saying that they will have online or in-person exams depending on the Covid situation.
Several school heads said that by December-January they start planning the academic calendar for the next session.
This year, they are not sure when the session will end.
“There is no question of long-term planning and even if we do plan, we have to keep room for accommodating changes. We have to be flexible,” said John Bagul, the principal of South City International School.
Bagul said that they make plans and then changes emerge every day, making it difficult to execute the plans.
Several schools had planned to reopen in January and some had also planned in-person exams, but the rising cases shut schools down.
“We had copious plans of how we wanted to conduct the tests in school, maintaining distance, allotting rooms and allocating teachers. But it was a huge setback when we had to alter our plans and then make fresh plans for the exams to be conducted in the online format,” said Anjana Saha, the principal of Mahadevi Birla World Academy.
Jessica Gomes Surana, the principal of Loreto Convent Entally, said that she tried to plan the academic calendar for the next session but could not proceed.
“In December, we had spread the word through our teachers that we would have in-person final exams but now we are not sure and it will depend on the situation... we have been working and reworking according to the changing situation,” said Gomes Surana.