Several schools in the city are pushing back their pre-board exams for classes X and XII in the hope that students would be able to write them on their campuses.
The schools have postponed the exams to February, by when schools expect many students aged between 15 and 18 will likely be fully vaccinated except those who have had Covid in the recent past.
Two of the schools have asked for vaccination certificates to get an estimate of how many eligible students are vaccinated. Those who have recovered from Covid are exempt from the requirement.
Usually the pre-boards papers are scheduled for December and January.
The Heritage School, Loreto Convent Entally, Loreto House, St Xavier's Collegiate School and St James' School have scheduled the exams for February in the hope that the Covid cases would come down and students would be allowed back on campus by then.
South City International School is yet to announce a date and are waiting for in-person classes to resume.
“We had originally announced that the exams would start on February 1, but with the onset of the third wave (of Covid infections) we pushed it back by two weeks, hoping that students can write in-person exams,” said Jessica Gomes Surana, principal of Loreto Convent, Entally.
Schools had reopened on November 16 but were shut down again in January because of a renewed surge in Covid cases.
“We have delayed the board exams, which are usually held in January with a few papers in December, so that students get an experience of writing an exam in school and are not nervous about directly appearing in an in-person board exam,” said Seema Sapru, principal of The Heritage School.
Sapru said that by the middle of February, when they will hold the pre-board exams, the eligible students will have received their second dose of Covid vaccine.
St James’ School for now has scheduled an online exam for the first week of February but is also waiting for an announcement from the government.
“If the government allows us to reopen, we will reschedule the exam and conduct it offline on the campus,” said Terence Ireland, principal of St James’.
“The concept of pre-boards has also changed because the exam is bifurcated. Since students are vaccinated, we would want to have them on campus for an exam before the boards,” said John Bagul, principal of South City International School.
The Central Board of Secondary Education as well as the ICSE council have divided the board exams into two semesters.
The semester 1 exams, held in November and December, had multiple-choice questions. The semester 2 exams will be subjective.
Teachers have said students have long not written exams at schools, so their writing speed has slowed down. Pre-board exams, if held offline, will give them some writing practice.