Ex-minister lashes out at government for goof-up in Class 10 paper

Stating that famed academicians in distant parts of the state were aware that the TET goof-up had happened only because of frequent reshuffling of school education minister, Thennarasu said that Sengottaiyan who had struggled to secure a ministerial berth during Jayalalithaa’s stint as Chief Minister and became a minister by accident after her death, had not fully understood the problems in his department thus far. 

Taking strong exception to the minister’s remark that Stalin was misguiding students ahead of the test, Thennarasu, in a statement issued here on Wednesday morning, referred to a gaffe in the Class 10 final examination question paper and said that it was only the ruling AIAMDK which was confusing students altogether. Thennarasu ridiculed the school education ministry led by Sengottaiyan for asking Class 10 students in the Social Science exam to elucidate the functions of planning commission chairman, unaware that the commission was dissolved and replaced with Neeti Ayog on January 1, 2015. 

Criticising Sengottaiyan’s reasoning that the government was only complying with the High Court verdict fixing April 2017 as deadline for conduct of TET, Thenarasu wondered why the “benomi AIADMK regime had disregarded the Supreme Court verdict ordering the reinstatement of Makkal Nala Paniyalargal and faced contempt every time the local body election came up for hearing in the Madras High Court?” 

Advising the minister to read Stalin’s statement thoroughly before engaging in statement war, the DMK district secretary asked the government to factor in the welfare of lakhs of youth and give them sufficient time to prepare for TET.