Visakhapatnam: With the Covid-19 pandemic and the prolonged national lockdown, the entire academic calendar is going to be changed in Andhra Pradesh.
All these decades, the annual academic calendar was conducted from June 12 of one year to June 11 of the following year. Now it will be from August to July with more reforms in the examination pattern.
As schools have lost almost two months of the academic calendar, the AP government has decided to change the annual calendar to run from August 1 to July 31. Already the government has issued directions to promote Classes 1 to IX without conducting final examinations. The government has suspended the Class X examinations till normalcy is restored.
In fact, a similar system was followed till 1995. Later, the government modified the examination rule and fixed 35 per cent as the pass mark in each subject for promotion to the next class.
All these years, the government has required passing Class X as a prerequisite for jobs in government services. But with these changes, the government is planning to introduce Intermediate as the minimum qualification for entry into any level of government job. The government is also framing new guidelines by abolishing the existing unit tests (conducted four times a year) and introducing two-level pre-examinations followed by final examinations.
With the new academic calendar there will be changes in the summer holidays and Pongal and Dasara holidays. The government is framing guidelines to limit the Dasara holidays to three days and Pongal holidays to five days. However, in view of the summer heat, holidays will be for May only, said a senior official in AP Education Department.
The official also said that the present unit examinations will be abolished and the plan is to introduce two-level of examinations quarterly.
The Q-1 and Q-2 examination marks will also be considered to give moderation in the final examination marks.
All these are under active consideration. Once the lockdown is lifted and observing the situation, the final draft will be prepared with the Chief Minister's approval, the official added.
