Students of Classes IX and XI in several CBSE schools will have to write online tests for promotion to the next class.

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) had issued a circular earlier this month, asking schools to promote students of Classes IX and XI to the next year on the basis of school assessments or by giving them an opportunity to appear in online or offline tests. This was meant for schools which could not complete their examination, evaluation and promotion process before the lockdown.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee has announced that schools in the state will remain shut till June 10.

Bhavan’s Gangabux Kanoria Vidyamandir, Mahadevi Birla World Academy and Birla Bharati are some of the schools that will conduct online tests for a handful of shortlisted students who could not be promoted on the basis of internal assessments and projects.

The board had said: “...schools are advised to promote students of grades IX and XI to the next grades on the basis of all the school based assessments including project work, periodic tests, term exams, etc conducted so far... for any child who is unable to clear this internal process (In any number of subjects), the school may utilise this period for providing remedial interventions, and school may give the opportunity of appearing in school based test/s online or offline”.

“We will take oral online tests. We were waiting for some relaxation of the lockdown after April 14 and to comply with the chief minister’s directive of keeping schools shut till June 10, we decided to go online. The students have been given a truncated syllabus,” said Anjana Saha, the principal of Mahadevi Birla World Academy.

The school has scheduled an online test for three students of Class IX on April 20 and eight students of Class XI on April 20.

Bhavan’s Gangabux Kanoria Vidyamandir will conduct an online test for about seven students of Classes IX and XI next month. The school had some exams pending, included two subjects in Class XI and one subject in Class IX, that had to be deferred because of the lockdown.

“The students were promoted on the basis of the average of internal exams and soft copies of report cards have been distributed,” said G.V. Subramanian, the secretary and director of the school.

Before conducting the online tests, the schools have also had to ensure that the students have access to computers.

“To make it easier for them we have decided to take MCQ- pattern oral tests,” said Apala Dutta, principal of Birla Bharati. There are two students in Class IX and another 10 in XI.