A three-day opinion poll conducted by Grassroots Research and Advocacy Movement (GRAAM), a public policy research and advocacy initiative, last week saw a majority of the respondents favouring the conduct of Class X examination with the necessary precautions.
The opinion poll, conducted between April 16 and 19, captured the responses of various stakeholders, including teachers, students and parents, besides the general public, said GRAAM executive director Basavaraj R. Shreshta.
A total of 1,487 respondents — 737 from rural areas and 750 from urban areas — participated in the Statewide survey, conducted by sharing a simple and structured online questionnaire.
The question went: “Should the board exam for class X students be conducted in 2021 amidst the COVID-19 pandemic?”
“It is interesting to note that 78% of teachers, 60% of students, 60% of parents, and 65% of the general public who participated in the survey were in favour of conducting the exam at this juncture. In total, 64% of the respondents favoured holding the exam,” said a statement issued by GRAAM.
When asked for an option to consider promotion of students to the next class without holding exam, but on the basis of internal assessment marks, a little more than half — 51% — of the respondents opined that the children should not be promoted this way. “Interestingly, 68% of the students expressed their consent to getting promoted to the next class based on internal assessment,” the survey report said.
A majority of the respondents (70%) opposed the idea of holding the exam online for the Class X students. “A total of 64% of the students, 71% of parents, 86% of teachers, and 64% of the general public opposed the idea of online examination,” the report stated.
Expectedly, the opposition to online exam was more from people in rural areas (77%) than in urban areas (63%). More than any other respondents, it was the teachers (86%) who were most against the idea of online exam.
Also, a majority of the respondents opined that students would face difficulty in choosing their next discipline of study without the results of class X exam.
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