Return to classrooms, admissions face delay
The year was a mixed bag for students. For those studying in school, returning to the physical classroom was the biggest change. For the older students, delays in competitive tests as well as admissions marked their calendar
MUMBAI: Most boards, including the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), cancelled the class 10 and 12 board examinations in 2021. This, of course, was a repercussion of the past year, which saw the Covid-19 pandemic spread across the globe, shutting physical classes, and moving education to Zoom and Teams applications. The year began with schools shut in urban areas for all batches, and open in rural areas for secondary batches only, but a sense of hope was pervasive, as the national vaccination programme rolled out in January.
By the end of the year, many schools have settled into some format of hybrid education, as physical schools reopened in a phased manner starting October. As staff and students return to school and college campuses after nearly 18 months, here’s a look at the year in education.
Medical admissions
In January, news broke that the all India medical exams for post graduate medical aspirants as well as other competitive examinations for under-graduate course were going to be pushed forward. These was eventually held between August and September leaving many students applying to various professional courses flummoxed.
The National Eligibility-cumentrance Test (NEET UG) exams were pushed from May to September and the results were announced by the National Testing Agency (NTA) on November 1 this year, after weeks of delay due to a Bombay high court stay. NEET-PG 2021 which should have taken place in January was pushed to February first and then April. The entrance test was finally conducted in September, but admissions were stayed by the Supreme Court (SC) which is currently hearing a series of petitions filed by students questioning the validity of implementation of Economically Weaker Section (EWS) and Other Backward Class (OBC) quota in All-india quota (AIQ) seats. Experts point to the domino effect of this delay: not a single post-graduate medical student
Sharma said.“it’s a confidential matter and I won’t like to comment on it,” Limasunep Jamir, Nagaland Police inspector general, who is heading the SIT said when asked if they will be allowed to question the jawans. Another official said that the army was “fully cooperating” with the SIT ordered by the state government and the required details and access were being provided. was admitted in colleges in 2021. Colleges, or teaching hospitals are where they learn on the job as they assist senior residents and doctors in treating patients; in the midst of a pandemic and the burnout that medical personnel are facing, this absence of new students will have a long-term effect. The next SC hearing is on January 6.
Board exams cancelled
Most school education boards, including the Maharashtra State Board for Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE) and the CBSE as well as CICSE (Indian Certificate of Secondary Education) decided to scrap class 10 and 12 board exams on account of the high number of Covid-19 cases and disrupted learning schedules. Most of these exams were already over in 2020 by the time the national lockdown was imposed.
With no exams this year, the results instead were evaluated based on students’ performance in the past years. This translated to some of the best scores in years. For the first time ever, 42 Higher Secondary Certificate (Hsc-class 12) students in the state were awarded 100% in their results while 91,420 scored between 90-95%.
This meant higher cut-offs for junior college as well as degree college admissions. For the current academic year, state government has decided to hold board exams in April and May 2022 in physical format, and the state board has already released
its schedule.
MU gets graded
Four years after the University of Mumbai (MU) lost its accreditation from the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), it was finally awarded an A++ grade in August this year.
NAAC accreditation is a performance indicator for higher educational institutes and is mandatory for applying for funds from Central agencies. The university was granted a Grade A score by NAAC in 2012. However, the score expired in March 2017 after the university failed to apply for re-accreditation in time. One of the oldest in the state universities, MU announced that it has received an A++ grade and a score of 3.65—also making it the first state university to be awarded an A++ grade. The NAAC grade gives recognition to universities and makes them eligible for grants from the central government and other agencies among other things.
Physical classes resume after 18 months
Education institutes that shut down in March 2020 following the nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of the pandemic, reopened starting October this year. In the last week of September, school education minister Varsha Gaikwad announced the reopening of physical school for classes 5 to 12 in rural areas and classes 8 to 12 in urban areas, starting October 4. In cities across the state, classes 1 to 7 only resumed on December 15. State higher education minister Uday Samant called for reopening of colleges in a phased manner and permitted only fully-vaccinated staff and students to attend class. All institutes were asked to adopt hybrid teaching methods.
The move invited mixed reactions by many. “As always, decisions were taken without taking any inputs from schools or parents and this has left the entire burden of hybrid classes on teachers, who are finding it very difficult to balance offline and online classes,” said Arundhati Chavan, president of Parentteachers Association United Forum.
While teachers have been facing trouble while balancing hybrid classes, some schools have gone out of their way to ensure this process is streamlined for both staff and students.
“We (the school) ran dry runs where teachers attended fellow teachers’ classes online to understand problems and to find solutions. This process helped us launch the hybrid classes with very little teething problems when classes eventually reopened to only 40-50% strength for physical classes,” said Dr Francis Swamy, principal, Campion School, Cooperage.
No new engineering colleges till 2024
The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) recently announced the extension of a blanket ban on new engineering institutes by two years. The decision was announced at a stakeholders’ meeting in Nagpur this month and AICTE chairman Anil Sahasrabuddhe confirmed that the moratorium on opening new colleges has been extended till 2024, keeping in mind the 45% seat vacancy reported across engineering institutes in the country in 2020-21. A committee was appointed to study, once again, the reasons for this. In their report which was released in the third week of December, the committee suggested a ban as seat vacancy has only slightly improved since 2018-19.
Experts said the government needs to facilitate changes including filling vacant teacher posts, encourage institutes to offer new age courses over and above traditional courses to attract students to engineering. “The government needs to ensure for more jobs for fresh engineering graduates in order to attract students to this once popular course,” said SS Mantha, former AICTE chairman.