As the State is going through the second wave of COVID-19, various district associations of PU college principals, including Dakshina Kannada, have asked the government to bring in drastic changes in the the second PU examination and ease pressure on students who had fewer hours of offline classes and are facing stress during lockdown.
In letters addressed to Primary and Secondary Education Minister S. Suresh Kumar, the associations have said that it would be unscientific to hold the second PU examination in the regular format. The government should not hold the common entrance test (CET) this year and instead, admission to professional courses should be made on the basis of marks that students obtained in their second PU examination, the associations said.
Apart from Dakshina Kannada District PU Principals Association (DKPUPA), associations from Belagavi, Chikkaballapur and Hassan districts have written letters to the Minister.
The associations said that the government should provide students a question bank or a set of five model question papers from which questions should feature in the annual examination. The government can make use of a software for framing question paper from the question paper bank/model question papers.
Instead of examination at different centres, which will pose difficulty in maintaining social distancing and adhering to other safety protocols, the government may consider holding the examination in colleges where students are studying. Deputy Directors of PU department should be given the responsibility to conduct the examination. Students, who have returned to their native places during the lockdown, should be allowed to write examination at centres closer to them. Evaluation of papers should be carried out at the district level.
Students, especially those from rural areas, have found it difficult to follow online lessons. Most of the colleges have not completed the earmarked 70% of the portion during the three-and-a-half months of offline classes. Students who topped in first PU have not fared well in unit tests, half yearly and preparatory examinations conducted for the second PU course. They said that students may not do well if the examination was conducted soon after the lockdown and an instance of this is the way many students failed in their second PU English examination that was conducted after the long lockdown last year, they said.
