
The West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education has recommended creating separate testing areas for pupils with contagious diseases during board exams. Those kids who are too sick to attend class would be allowed to use these areas. All other testing areas will be maintained apart from these areas. The council also requested that the test monitors mark “sick candidate” at the top of each student’s response sheet. On Monday, the state council announced that the necessary requirements for the Higher Secondary Examinations in 2023 were made available to the public. Between March 14 and 27, when respiratory syncytial virus, chickenpox, mumps, and measles are often at their highest, we will be doing these tests.
Institutional leaders have often heard that they must do more to protect their students from infectious illnesses like COVID. Chiranjeeb Bhattacharya is the current chairman of the HS council and is responsible for steering the organisation. “Those kids who have been diagnosed with measles or chickenpox but are still enrolled at the school have gotten this information since they are still eligible to take the upcoming examinations. Because of this, measures must be made as quickly as possible to help students who want to avoid academic suspension. The monitors were told to put the words “sick candidate” at the top of the response scripts to make it easier to spot these persons.”
“In the first phases of an illness, the most common mechanism of transmission is the passing of droplets. Infections like the chicken pox and respiratory syncytial virus are examples of this. This is also true in the latter stages of a terminal disease. Therefore, there should be a designated place inside the classroom that may be used as a quarantine zone for pupils who are unwell and need to be isolated from the rest of the class.” Dr. Arindam Biswas, a physician at a private hospital, has made this claim.
In 2022, the Council has mandated that all schools instal isolation chambers for the protection of students. In response to the outbreak of a potentially infectious disease, this order was issued.
Subhrajit Dutta, headmaster of the Hindu School, said, “We used to have an isolation room,” and if a similar circumstance came in the future, “We would follow the same technique.” “We planned to continue in the same way we had before.” [Other references to this must exist.] The head of Jadavpur Vidyapith, Partha Pratim Baidya, deemed the council’s decision to eliminate the Madhyamik tests in 2021 to be a beneficial one, given these pupils would be taking their first set of board examinations in 2021. The reason for this is that these kids are the first in their families to take these tests. The Madyamik examinations will no longer be administered.
Other central boards, including as the CISCE and the CBSE, used to provide similar assistance to students who were unable to attend exams due to illness. These students qualified for financial aid.