After long struggles and with a fair amount of luck our Open Schoolers passed the National Institute for Open Schooling (NIOS) 10th grade exams. Lucky them!
It brought relief to the parents and families, and of course to the kids themselves.
For a couple of month it was very much unclear how the NIOS would handle the exams during the pandemic. At the end they decided to use “testpapers” which were assigned early in 2021 as homework as the basis for this years marks. The students were fully supported by their mentors, could use the books and the Internet to complete the assignment – and as a result, at least one of our scholars simply wrote down what his mentor was telling him and copy&pasted from the books and the “neighbour”. It wasn’t really an honest performance and surely doesn’t reflect their real standard.
So for me the exams had a slightly bitter taste, because NOT working and NOT learning was rewarded. It was very very easy to smuggle through … which at the end of the day doesn’t lead to better education. But this is my point of you.
For the kids, and especially for the families this paper counts. No matter what they’ve really learned. They don’t care. It made them happy – and this is what counts at the end of the day.
Congratulations.
