The recent announcement of the Tamilnadu Government to conduct public examinations for classes 5 and 8 has come as a shocker and earned sharp criticism from parents, teachers and educationalists as well.
The recent announcement of the Tamilnadu Government to conduct public examinations for classes 5 and 8 has come as a shocker and earned sharp criticism from parents, teachers and educationalists as well.
On last Friday, the Tamil Nadu Government announced the introduction of Board exams for Class 5 and 8 students, from the current academic year, which has become a controversial topic since then.
It may be noted that the recently released draft National Education Policy of the Central government had a proposal for Board exams for these classes.
In spite of severe public opposition to the proposal and even before the draft policy is finalized, the State government has gone ahead and announced the decision which received only cold reception from the stakeholders, the students and their parents.
Arguing that it is a regressive step for a state which otherwise is progressive on the educational front, S. Arumainathan, State president, TamilNadu Students Parents Welfare Association stated that this move will be detrimental to the students hailing from poor socio-economic backgrounds and mostly studying in government schools.
"Children who attend Government schools are largely from the poorer sections, and often their parents are daily wage earners, and illiterate, and so are not in a position to help their wards in learning” Arumainathan argued.
“Moreover many schools in the state still have single-teachers who handle all the subjects. This decision will definitely force many students to drop out," he said
“It so happens that many children who do not study well in the lower classes, start studying well once they reach higher classes due to many reasons. Once they fail in lower classes that door would be totally shut for them, not many parents from the lower economic category would want to continue their wards at school if they fail. This is totally against the “No detention" policy until class 8, followed by the state government till now” the educationist said.
“The Government's policy paper itself has stated that the number of dropouts have reduced considerably after the implementation of " no - detention “policy. Why go against it now? we have represented our views to the Education secretary, hope the state Government will consider this with an open mind", added Arumainathan.
"If the Government's intention is only to assess a child's potential there are many ways to do that. Who will better know the child except for the class teacher? Board exams are not the only means to assess a child's potential, how can they be treated at par with a child studying in a private school where there are enough teachers“ questioned Arumainathan.
The other complaint against the State Government is that it did not consult educationalists or experts before taking this decision.
Speaking on this, K.R. Nandakumar, State General secretary, TamilNadu Primary Matric. Hr.Sec & CBSE Schools Association said, “The Government should have consulted with all stakeholders before arriving at such a decision. There is no clarity till now on many things. There is still no blueprint, no clarity about how these exams will be conducted”.
“The Government should give an annual report beforehand on their plans for the ensuing academic year. This will help schools, parents and children to be mentally prepared" he said.
"Many Government schools do not have enough teachers to handle classes and have combined classes for different grades. In this scenario, bringing in the Board exams for classes 5 and 8 will add undue pressure on teachers and parents. The State Government should first focus on providing enough facilities to government schools, appoint separate teachers for each subject, educate the children first, instead of putting pressure through board exams.
“Though the announcement claims that children will not be detained for the next three years, eventually after 2022 there will be detention, which is not good in the long run," added Nandakumar.
However, there is a section of people who support this move by the state Government. They argue that many of the students get to higher classes without knowing even the basics, only because of the no-detention policy.
According to educationalists, a complete overhaul of school education is the need of the hour and the system should help the students grasp the concept rather than just memorizing stuff and should not be burdening them with more barriers.