Screening for HSC exam to be more stringent

BHUBANESWAR: Classes IX and X students will have to pull their socks up now. In its bid to improve performance in secondary levels, the State Government on Monday announced that students must sit for monthly tests in the last two years of the high school.The School and Mass Education department has brought out a resolution suggesting a slew of measures for improving teaching and learning in secondary education. Monthly tests will now be mandatory in Classes IX and X. There will be special thrust on  developing the writing ability of the students.Similarly, pre-Test and Test examinations have been made mandatory. Although these two tests existed in the calendar, not all schools followed it. The department has instructed that these two examinations must be used for rigorous screening and only those who are eligible must appear for high school certificate (HSC) examination.School and Mass Education Secretary Aparajita Sarangi said the tests have been made mandatory to acquaint the students with the pattern of questions in the HSC examination. In fact, for the first time, the department has announced that model questions and answers will be printed by the Board of Secondary Education (BSE) for circulation among the students.  The model questions and answer sets will be based on the trend of the last five years and made available at schools.A special module to focus on high as well as low-achieving students has also been designed. Each high school will draw up a list of high achieving students from Classes IX and X and hold special coaching classes at non-residential camps in the block levels during vacations. Similar camps will be held at municipal corporations and municipalities. The department will engage four teachers per camp and they will be paid an honorarium of ` 5,000 per month.Not only high achievers, remedial coaching classes will be held for low achieving students. A concept of “hard spots” will be devised to focus on the weaknesses in certain subjects so that solutions can be chalked out. Services of BSE subject experts will be sought.