The West Bengal Board of Secondary Education announced on Monday that students of Classes VI to IX would be promoted to the next class “without appearing in any evaluation/examination this year”.

“But whenever the school shall open and classes start regularly, the teacher must revise the full syllabus of the previous class in the interest of the students before starting the syllabus of the present class,” reads Monday’s notification.

The notice also says that though no selection test will be held this year for Class X students, “the schools are requested to make their students ready” for Madhyamik 2021 “by taking mock tests, if required”.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee had announced on November 10 that students of the Bengal board in Classes X and XII will be allowed to write the Madhyamik and higher secondary exams next year without appearing in a selection test.

Asked how mock tests could be held if schools don’t reopen, Partha Karmakar, the board’s deputy secretary (academic), told Metro: “We have left it to the schools to decide factoring in the circumstances.”

A board official suggested “a bare minimum test on digital platforms based on the availability of tech support or over a phone call”.

Although next year’s Madhyamik dates are yet to be announced, the board will hold camp offices on December 16 and 17 for the form fill-up exercise.

The state government on November 25 had pruned the syllabuses for the students of Classes X and XII who will write their board exams next year because on-campus classes could not be held because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Close to 14,000 secondary schools have been shut since the third week of March.

The state government had decided to reintroduce the pass-fail system in Classes V and VIII in government-aided schools from the 2020-21 academic year. Reintroduction of detention in Classes VI and VII is due in the following year.

Students were supposed to write three tests during the academic session that starts in January before securing promotion.

“The three tests were to be held in April, July and November. But the tests could not be conducted this year,” said an official of the education department.

Teachers tried holding classes on digital platforms during the pandemic but limited access for tens of thousands of students was a big hindrance.

Saugata Basu, a teacher of Uttarpara Government School and the secretary of the Government School Teachers’ Association, said the instruction to revise the full syllabus of the previous class once physical classes resume suggests that the department knows that alternative models were not adequate to cover the syllabus.

“In the absence of revision, the students will not be able to comprehend anything of the new class,” said Basu.

A school education department official said Avik Majumdar, the chairman of the syllabus restructure committee, advised revision of the full syllabus of the previous class.

“The committee appointed by the state government consulted experts before giving its recommendations,” said an official of the board.