Teachers have reported sketchy answers, incomplete answer scripts and a dip in performance from the evaluation of pen-and-paper exams that have been conducted across city schools.

Usually, students are better prepared for rehearsal exams than they are this year, several heads of schools said.

The dip in performance is across subjects. Toposheet and map work in geography and English spellings have deteriorated, teachers said.

In at least one school, the head has decided to speak to parents of Class XII students and tell them that they need to “sit up”, based on feedback from teachers after paper corrections.

At another school, teachers said they will speak to students about the need to pull themselves up before the boards.

“We feel certain concepts need to be cleared and students have not had the kind of practice that is required. Performance of students is not as it should have been, especially for ISC candidates, where the requirement is much higher,” said Suvina Shunglu, principal, Sri Sri Academy.

“In a regular year, by this time (before boards) the students have an intense preparation and have written three exams in school. But this year, they could write one so far and that too only those who opted for it,” said Shunglu.

Schools had shut down in March last year as a precaution against Covid and students attended online classes and wrote online exams.

Following a nod from the state government, schools reopened for students of Classes IX to XII on February 12 and have held on-campus exams, especially for board classes.

“In the pre-boards, we expect students to present good answers but there is sketchiness now and answers are not complete. Writing long answers has been impacted, which is apparent in subjects like history and sociology,” said Jessica Gomes Surana, principal, Loreto Convent Entally.

She said that in subjects like history, a student has to memorise and that works with repetition, which has not happened this year. This is being reflected in the performance.

Teachers are also noticing that a section of students performed better in the online exams than they are now.

At The BSS School, the Class X practice tests are over and the Class XII ones are underway.

“For Class X, teachers have given feedback that for a section of students, the performance is low across subjects. They were more comfortable online and have struggled in the on-campus exams. They have not done as well as we had expected or as they had done in the (online) practice test in January. We plan to have another practice before the boards and expect them to improve by then,” said Sunita Sen, principal, The BSS School.

Sen said that the writing speed had gone down and the practice of writing an exam in a controlled school environment had suffered.

“The average students did better in the online mode and are struggling to complete papers now and therefore not performing as well,” said Janet Gasper Chowdhury, the president of St Augustine’s Education Society, which runs St Augustine’s Day School in Barrackpore and Shyamnagar.

Students are finding it difficult to transition from online to offline, said Richard Gasper, principal, St Augustine’s Day School in Calcutta. “It is showing in their performance and marks are going down,” he said.

Students have not had physically invigilated exams and seem to be having “exam phobia”. “In physical school, regular tests are held, teachers check the progress and inform parents accordingly to keep the performance levels up. Usually, just before the boards, we have three parent-teacher meetings, especially with the below-average performers, but this year we could have just one,” Gasper Chowdhury said.

At Krishnachandrapur High School in Mathurapur, a state board-affiliated school in South 24-Parganas, teachers have started conducting class tests. “But the scores are low even in class tests. We will hold mock tests before the boards,” said headmaster Chandan Maity.