With the paper being of just 50 marks, the demand has gained support, but the state board is yet to take any decision
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The last paper of the SSC (Class X) exams — Geography may never be held at all.
After Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a nationwide lockdown for 21 days starting at midnight from March 25, there is a growing demand in the education sector that instead of waiting to conduct the final paper, the state board should think of other options.
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With the paper being of just 50 marks, the demand has gained support, but the state board is yet to take any decision.
It was during the final stage of the SSC exams that dreaded COVID-19 started spreading its fangs in India. Seeing the spike in cases, the state board decided to postpone the Geography paper until further notice. However, following Modi's announcement on Tuesday, the board may have to think of other options.
"With the 21-days lockdown in place, if the last paper is to be held, it will have to be after April 15. But that too is unclear as off now, as everything depends on the situation in future. And all this can be stressful for the students and their parents," Jalinder Sarode, general secretary of the Shikshak Bharti organisation said.
He continued, "Anyway SSC has 'best of five' options where candidate's five best scores are considered of total six. That can be applied here. Geography is part of Social Studies subject wherein 100 marks are divided between History and Geography — 50 marks each. Out of these, 10 marks each are for internal assessment which already has been completed. The History paper (40 marks) was also held. So the board can consider a final total of 560 instead of 600." Uday Nare, a former member of state board subject committee and a teacher himself, said, "This demand is growing not only in educators but also in parents as post the PMs announcement on Tuesday, there has been an increasing uncertainty. The state board can take help from education and subject experts to brainstorm on what other ways can be used if the Geography exam is not going to be held."
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