Nagpur school holding exams online, seeks submission offline

NAGPUR: Students of a well-known multibranch CBSE school are baffled as their exams are being conducted online, but submissions are being mandated offline. A parent from the school said students appear for the pen-paper exam at home only with questions coming online, but the answer sheet is required to be submitted to school for evaluation.

“It’s nothing but harassment of parents because they are asking us to submit it after every paper. So, every parent will be making five to six trips to submit the answersheet to the school,” said the parent.

The parent added that this problem gets accentuated because of another mandatory condition.

“They tell us to come at a particular time else submissions won’t be accepted. Now, how is it possible for a working parent to reach the school at such a fixed time?” asked the parent. Internally conducted and assessed exams can be held both online and offline, but this paper submission is something which education officials have also not come across.

TOI spoke to an education official about the issue who requested anonymity citing the ongoing budget session during which officials avoid making public statements. “Even I am surprised why the school is not accepting scanned copies of the answersheet. If it’s an optional thing then fine, the parents can decide in which format they wish to submit their child’s papers. In times like these, schools must avoid unnecessary confrontation with parents,” said the official.

The official said there is not much they can do. “The school is not calling students to campus, so technically there is no violation of safety protocols,” he added.

TOI had reported on Wednesday that internal exams cannot be mandated in physical mode. Schools have to provide an online exam option to students because Maharashtra government has made it clear that physical attendance in schools is not mandatory.