Due to the rigid restrictions enforced by the Kerala officials, Tamil students of the Anaikatti school who need to travel from the border districts of Kerala to write their public exams may face immense difficulty.
Coimbatore: DDue to the rigid restrictions enforced by the Kerala officials, Tamil students of the Anaikatti school who need to travel from the border districts of Kerala to write their public exams may face immense difficulty. The restrictions might leave them in a quandary of having to travel more than 180 kms to write the exams in TN.
The 10th standard public exams in TN that were scheduled to begin on June 1 have been postponed to June 15. The lockdown is expected to be relaxed from June 1. However, the opening of State borders is still uncertain even with the proposed relaxations.
Under these circumstances, people who come from other states into TN are being isolated for a certain period.
As a result of this, 10th standard students of the Anaikatti High School are being faced with a great dilemma as to the means to appear for the exams.
The Government Tribal Residential High school at Anaikatti is located on the borders of Kerala and TN where tribal and other Tamil students from Attappadi, Solaiyur, Agazhi and Kulikadavu areas study. The school has been functional for more than 60 years.Many students from the school have always travelled eight kilometers to write their board exams at the Chinna Thadagam School.
However, for the first time in the history of the school, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, exams are being conducted on campus because of which 21 students from the Attapadi area who have to travel to the school to write their exams are now left in a lurch. Similarly, 15 students of class 11 of the Chinna Thadagam Higher Secondary school are also facing difficulty in writing their exams.
There have been complaints that the Kerala authorities are being extremely rigid at the Anaikatti check post. Even e-pass holders are being refused entry into TN by the Kerala authorities. Further, the exams schedule has been revised again and again causing confusion to the students and leaving them in an uncertain state, complained the Tamil students in Kerala.Even if they do manage to cross the borders to write their exams they are faced with the problem of being isolated, they said.
A student of the school Marina Jhansi said, "the E-pass has to be obtained from the Palakkad District Collector's office and the travel to exam centre might happen via Palakkad, Walayar and Coimbatore. Normally, the distance to go to school is less than 10 kms; however; the alternate route that we might have to use covers close to 180 to 200 kms. This is not practically possible." The people of the area are of the same opinion.
Social Activist Joshua said, "Permission must be granted to the students appearing for the exams to travel through the Anaikatti check post. The Coimbatore District Administration and the TN government must take action to permit them to travel to write the exams."