Every year parents, students and teachers wait for the 10th class exam. Somewhere or the other, the tenth examination has become a test for everyone. The results have become a matter of respect for the parents, teachers and schools as well. Usually, the preparation of class X in schools starts many years in advance. Apart from school, there is a rush in tuition classes, serious study environment at home, all this has become natural. But for the last one and a half years, studies have not been done the way it used to be. After the pain of COVID, it has become necessary to think what to do with class 9 and 10? What has happened from the side should be there or can some other way be found? It is easy to understand that the situation will be different in different states of the country. But there is a big difference in the situation in the same place, in different areas and in different types of schools. Look at cities like Schools have been opened for older children, but the attendance of students in private schools is generally low. On the other hand, look at the condition of government schools. Teachers of such schools say that since the schools have opened, there has been no problem of attendance in government schools, especially in classes XII, X. Remember about class nine students they were in class seven in March 2020 and now they have reached class nine. During this time teachers and parents must have made efforts to continue their studies, but the effect it has on these students is difficult to predict. Similarly, the students who are in class X today were in class VIII in 2020. What should be the curriculum for these children? Which teaching-learning activities would be right for them? Schools have opened, but half a year has passed since they were opened. Nowadays ‘learning loss’ is in discussion. This loss has to be understood in two parts. The first part will be about those lives and skills that the children have forgotten and the second part will be about those things which these students did not get a chance to learn. Most of the students are not actually at the level of the class they are in. The level of private school students may be different because they continued to get online education but government school students could not get such facilities.
It is very important to make a strategy by looking at the reality of the students from the ground level and understanding their problems closely. Everyone knows that 2020 and 2021 were extraordinary and unusual in terms of school education since last year, but we have not tried to change the pedagogy or pattern of education deeply or seriously. Lightening of syllabus, pushing board exam dates back and forth, some exams now and some later, easing of exam questions, these are minor adjustments, not visionary. Evaluating unrealistic expectations is a waste of time for students and teachers. From the experience of the pandemic period and the advent of New Education Policy 2020, a golden opportunity is before us to decide what any young man or girl of India should be able to do and think till the age of 16. Anyway, young people of this age learn a lot on their own. Some in school and some outside school, they have suffered a lot during the COVID-era. If education is of another kind, then the examination or result and evaluation of this education should also be done in another way.