Screenshots from videos uploaded by School Education, Nagaland are seen in this collage photo. (Clockwise from Top left): Class V Science – Topic: Our Healthy Food; Class IX English 1; Class XII History; and Class X Mathematics. Based on the videos uploaded in May, the Department of School Education on June 3 conducted trial tests on the online student evaluation portal launched by the department on June 2. A total of 20,126 students participated in the test.
Morung Express News
Kohima | June 3
The online student evaluation portal by the Department of School Education which was launched on June 2 registered a total of 20,126 students participating in the trial test today.
The portal was initiated with the focal idea to engage students in continuous process of education during the COVID-19 lockdown period. In today’s trial test four exams were conducted for class VIII, IX, X and XII, with duration of 45 minutes for each test comprising of 20 questions.
The class-wise break-up of students’ participation are as follows: class VIII – 3329; class IX- 6975; class IX – 5174 and class XII – 4648 with English as the common subject for both Arts and Science.
This was informed by the Principal Director of School Education, Shanavas C during an interaction with media persons this evening at the Secretariat, Kohima.
Pleased with the participation, Shanavas admitted there were some technical glitches initially as students were unable to select their schools from the drop down menu. However, it was fixed and the tests were conducted smoothly.
He informed that the idea behind the online student evaluation test is a ‘self assessment test’ for the students to assess on how far they have learnt based on the digital lessons that were given in the month of May.
While encouraging more participation from the students in the coming days, Shanavas also clarified that this is not compulsory but a purely voluntary participation of the students, considering that students in many remote areas may not be able to access the online portal because of ‘bad network connections.’
Stating that this is an unprecedented situation, the Principal Director said “Not only in Nagaland but everywhere people are facing, and compared to many other states, we have very bad network connections. So, online compulsory schedule is not practical.”
Although schools have been encouraged to give out notes to the students, he viewed that in this kind of situation, the Department will not be able assess cent percent whether the schools are actually doing that or not.
“They might not be doing that, hence we want to experiment everything so that the students will be benefitted, because April-June is the peak academic session. And rather than letting the students sit idle at home doing nothing, we want to keep the learning process on,” said Shanavas.
He appreciated the private schools (with resources) who have been conducting classes for their students through various means and ways. Nonetheless, Shanavas matter-of-factly said “mostly the government schools won’t come forward doing that as they won’t have the provision, that’s why the department is trying its best to help all the students at large.”
On the likelihood of reopening of schools in the stated, the officer said it needs concurrence by the Ministry of Human Resources and Development, who will be reviewing the same in the month of July in consonance with the opinions from all the states.
Commenting on the recently declared HSLC and HSSLC result when enquired on the NIL results of the government schools, Shanavas remarked “in one year we cannot do any magic to have 100% result in the government schools.”
At the same time, he strongly stated that the foundation of the elementary education in the state must be strengthened to have satisfactory results in the coming years. “Let us empathise with the students and work towards building a strong elementary foundation,” Shanavas maintained.
He further informed that online digital lessons have been prepared till June 30, and if needed, the department will continue with the lessons.
