Class 12 practical exams see full attendance on Day 1

The board exams for Class 12 in Tamil Nadu will be held from May 5. Of the 8.2 lakh general students, who were enrolled to appear for board exams this academic year, more than four lakh candidates from the Science stream were expected to attend practical exams. Accordingly, practical exams would be conducted for more than ten subjects, including Physics, Chemistry and Biology. 

Practical exams would be conducted for the Class 12 students in their respective schools by not only following general SOPs, but also adopting more than 20 specific guidelines by the students in the laboratories. 

A senior official from the School Education Department told DT Next that since pipette (to transport a measured volume of liquid), was not allowed to be used by the students, they have used burette and accordingly, the questions were prepared for the practical exams. 

“Instead of using microscopic slides, hand-drawn picture or photographs were used,” he said adding the schools were also instructed that determination of the wavelength of a composite light by normal incidence method using a diffraction grating and spectrometer experiment could be avoided.” 

He also said that a team comprising education officers, which was constituted in each district, was continuously monitoring the adherence to COVID-19 protocol by surprise visits to the schools. 

“The practical exams were conducted following all the safety norms with 100 per cent attendance on day one,” RC Saraswathi, Headmistress of Government Girl’s Higher Secondary School in Ashok Nagar in Chennai, said. She also claimed that parents too were very confident of sending their children for exams after seeing all the SOP measures taken by the institution. 

Arumainathan, Tamil Nadu Parents-Teachers Association president said, “till now there were no complaints from parents and even students with regard to the conducting of practical exams since all the SOPs were adopted. However, we need to observe whether this good work continues even in the board exams too.” 

I Sapna, a Class 12 student, who attended her Physics practical exam at a government-aided school in the city said, “while entering the lab, I was bit scared. However, after seeing the safety arrangements, my fear came down and did the exam well.” 

After getting reports from the members of his forum across the state, Tamil Nadu Teachers Association president PK Ilamaran also said that the practical exams were well organised even in all the government schools. “The good work should continue,” he added.