– Sukanya Nandy

Almost a year since schools have been shut down and education being disrupted, there’s a looming uncertainty on exams for students of classes 8 and below.

While the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) is yet to announce the status of the final exams, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Department of Education (DoE), in a circular dated February 24 said, “Since no classroom teaching-learning has taken place at the primary and middle level, the formal mode of pen and paper assessment is replaced by assessment based on subject-wise assignment project for Classes 3-8 for all government and government-aided schools.”

Here’s a state-wise update on class 1-8 school promotions and/or exams:

Delhi: In February 2021, the Delhi government has ruled out the possibility of offline examinations and have shared guidelines to its schools for assessment of students up to Class 8 that states that students will be evaluated on the basis of projects and assignments. The DoE has also issued guidelines for assessment of students from the KG level to Class 2 stating students of these classes will be given grades on the basis of the winter break assignments and responses to the worksheets shared during the pandemic through WhatsApp or any offline means. 

Rajasthan: The government decided not to conduct any examination till the 5th grade in state-run schools and students will be promoted on the basis of assessment. This promotion will be done on April 1.

For classes 6 and 7, exams will be conducted from April 15-22 and for classes 9 and 11, the exams will begin from April 6 and continue till 22. Class 8 exam will be conducted as per the board pattern.

Punjab: The examination of classes 5 & 8 will be conducted as per schedule on March 16 and 22, respectively.

Uttar Pradesh: In the latest announcement by the state government, dated March 24, students from classes 1 to 8 in all state-run schools will be promoted without examination.

Odisha: The state School & Mass Education Department has promoted all the students from standard 1 to 8 to the next higher class without examination for the academic session 2020-21. The state government has also decided to conduct remedial classes for first 2-3 months in new academic session to bring the students to appropriate competency level, applicable for all government, government-aided and all un-aided private schools.

Maharashtra: Dattatray Jagtap, director of secondary and higher secondary education in the state said the government is considering promoting classes 1 to 8 students on the basis of yearly academic performance without conducting final year exams.

Tamil Nadu: Students of classes 9, 10 and 11 will be promoted to the next class without taking exams, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami said recently. The students will be assessed based on their marks on the internal assessment. But the decision on rest of the classes are to be taken.

Puducherry: The administration has approved a proposal to declare students of classes 1 to 9 ‘all pass’ this academic year.

Kerala: The state government is planning to promote classes 1 to 9 without any examinations. Teachers will be asked to give marks to students based on the performance of the students in the online classes under continuous evaluation method. The marks obtained in this will be considered for promoting students.

Telangana, Karnataka, AP, MP, Punjab, Haryana, West Bengal: No announcement on the promotion of students for classes 1-8

Also read: School reopening status across India