Online Examinations

When distress strikes only the ones who think out of the box and take challenges win! One such example of a daring thought is of Arya Gurukul School, Kalyan. In the wake of the Government’s directive to temporarily suspend school operations to stop the spread of COVID- 19 pandemic, most schools have announced early vacations this summer. The one’s who had examinations have postponed their exams or announced different ways to evaluate children based on previous performance. The parents and school children are left confused and anxious about the exams, said Principal Radhamani Iyer.

However, Arya Gurukul School came up with what they rightly claim to be a “novel” idea. They are going ahead with the examinations for their 21st Century Learners by conducting Online Examinations for Grades 5 – 8th for Science, Social Studies, Sanskrit and Math. Arya Gurukul took up the magnanimous task of conducting Online exams for the first time. “We are happy to announce that today was the pilot run of the online exams. Prior to the exam a “Parent Consent Form” was sent to all parents, through Microsoft Forms 21st Century tools and it was indeed a great encouragement to see that we received responses and positive feedback from all the parents of 546 students of these 4 grades (Grade 5th – 8th)”, shared Mr. Bharat Malik, Director of AryaGlobal group.

What is commendable that the whole exercise was completed within a span of 48 hours, with the entire team of AryaGlobal group, their technical support team, the Microsoft Technical team, Tech Avant-Garde team working non-stop, preparing the technical platforms for the exam, sending out the forms to parents, collating the data, answering parent’s queries and finally releasing the link to the exams and conducting real- time monitoring of the exams, with an online helpline.

Many loopholes surfaced and many alternative solutions had to be thought of. For example, difficulty in conducting the Sanskrit exam online, tweaking of questions in the Mathematics exams so that the students don’t have to draw graphs or diagrams. “So far we have had a smooth sail in this operation. If things go well this will be a milestone activity which can help other schools across India to replicate the same”, added Ms. Radhamani Iyer, Principal, Arya Gurukul School, Kalyan. The school has been in constant touch with its parents, solving their issues. The parents are equally enthusiastic as they send their wards photographs and videos giving the exams at home with extremely positive feedback and comments.

Arya Gurukul School is committed towards overall students’ development with state-of-the-art infrastructure. They have been using the MYLycee parent portal and are a Microsoft Aspire School and are backed with committed teachers and staff who work diligently towards providing best in class education.