No Class XII evaluation work in Chennai due to rising Covid-19 cases

CHENNAI: School education department has made elaborate attempts to maintain physical distancing and personal hygiene during the evaluation of Class XII board exam answer scripts, the first major challenge the school education department faces during the lockdown. The process will involve more than 40,000 teachers assessing 48 lakh answer scripts at 200 evaluation centres from May 27.
From bus routes to pick up teachers and disinfecting the evaluation centres twice a day, the department has made elaborate arrangements.

Due to increasing Covid-19 cases, the department has decided not to have evaluations done in Chennai and teachers from the district will also be exempted from the evaluation duty. The answer scripts allotted for evaluation in Chennai will be shifted to other districts.
“To follow social distancing norms, the department has increased evaluation centres from 70 to 200 centres,” school education director S Kannappan said. “From spraying disinfectants to arranging transport, the government has made all arrangements for the safety of teachers. It is compulsory for everyone to wear masks. Officials have also been told to avoid gathering of teachers inside the evaluation centres,” he added. School education department would provide three reusable masks for every teacher to do the evaluation work.
Over 40,000 of the 69,000 post-graduate teachers teaching Classes XI and XII will be drafted for evaluation work. Headmasters were asked to avoid recommending teachers residing in containment zones.
“We have also requested district collectors inspecting the centres for uninterrupted power and water supply. We hope we would have enough teachers for evaluation,” a chief educational officer said.
Evaluation of Class XI answerscripts will begin once Class XII work is over. The department has also asked chief educational officers about teachers stranded in their natives during the lockdown. “The department may use the service of stranded teachers in the respective districts,” a headmaster said.
As per the tentative plan, the directorate of government examinations may release the Class XII results in the third week of June. More than 8.5 lakh students wrote the exams from March 2 to 24.