Hold exams online: Child rights panel

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, February 25

With the increasing number of Covid cases among students in the state, the Punjab State Commission for Protection of Child Rights has written to the Punjab Education Secretary and recommended not to conduct offline exams for pre-nursery to Class VIII students, and instead hold online examinations.

Commission chairman Rajinder Singh said the commission had been receiving a number of emails and phone calls from students and parents against the offline mode of examinations.

Also, in a communique to the secretary of the Central Board of School Education (CBSE), the commission has stated that, “It has come to the notice of the commission that the CBSE has decided to conduct the examination of Class IX-XII via offline mode. Students and teachers in Punjab schools have got affected by Covid and the parents are worried.”

In its recommendation to the board, the commission has stated that the exams for Class IX and XI students should be conducted through online mode and said guidelines issued by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare should be followed strictly for the offline board exams of Class X and XII students.

Notably, from Nawanshahr alone, 331 students have tested positive for Covid until now.

5 teachers, 3 students positive in patiala

Patiala: Five teachers and three students of government schools in Patiala tested positive for Covid-19 on Thursday. While three teachers and equal number of students tested positive at Government School, Nuagawan, two teachers were infected at NTC School, Rajpura. With this, 55 teachers and 12 students have tested positive in February alone.