SHILLONG: The state Government is keen to complete the evaluation of papers for the Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) examinations conducted by the Meghalaya Board of School Education (MBoSE) within May 31.
“We want the results to be declared by June 10”, Education Minister Lahkmen Rymbui said here on Wednesday while underlining the need to start the evaluation process immediately.
On Tuesday, the Principal Secretary of Education department, DP Wahlang, had sent a letter addressed to the MBoSE Executive Chairman, MHK Marak, stating that the department will arrange curfew passes for the evaluators immediately to resume the evaluation process.
“Inter district passes for evaluators who have to come to Shillong from Tura and vice versa will be arranged. All evaluation should be completed by May 31”, Wahlang stated in the letter.
The letter also suggested that MBoSE needs to examine the feasibility of transporting the answer scripts to Shillong for evaluation as it would be difficult for evaluators to travel to Tura for the exercise.
HSSLC examination
Speaking on the four remaining papers of the Higher Secondary School Leaving Certificate (HSSLC) examinations, Rymbui said around 3000 students are waiting to write the Mathematics paper while around 70 students were yet to sit for the Statistic, Physical Education and Western Music papers.
“We would like to conduct the remaining examinations probably from May 20 onwards. The main reason for choosing May 20 is that we anticipate some relaxation by the first week of May and we will have around two weeks to be ready to conduct the examinations”, he added.
The department is also tasked with the responsibility of addressing the concerns of around 200 HSSLC candidates presently stranded outside the state.
Completion of syllabus
The state government has advised MBoSE to coordinate with the Directorate of Educational Research and Training (DERT) and come up with guidelines to complete the syllabus within the current academic calendar.
Stating that state’s academic calendar is different from the all-India schedule, Rymbui pointed out that the academic calendar in the state begins from February.
Rymbui also informed that the state government is planning to truncate the summer vacation and the Durga Puja holidays besides adding Saturday as half day to complete the syllabus.
“Normally the syllabus would be completed by November end but now we are looking to complete the syllabus by December 15,” he said.
It is noteworthy that the in the letter written by Wahlang to the MBoSE executive chairman, the former has asked the Board to coordinate with DERT and examine if some parts of the syllabus can be completed through self-study so that the syllabus can be completed within December 15.
Re-opening of schools
On the matter of re-opening of schools and colleges, Rymbui said the department will come up with an action plan by next week. “The government is keen to re-open the schools taking into the consideration the future of the students”, he said.
The government will decide whether to open the schools throughout the state in one go or in a phased manner, he said, while adding that it all depended on the situation.
“We will have to go deep into the matter before deciding on a date for re-opening of the schools,” Rymbui said, while acknowledging that categorization of East Khasi Hills as a Red Zone has compounded the issue.