TN rolls back decision on public exam for classes 5,8

The Tamil Nadu government on Tuesday announced the cancellation of board exams for fifth and eighth classes, amid opposition by various parties and other organisations.

In a statement, School Education Minister KA Sengottaiyan said a GO was issued on September 13, 2019 that board exams will be conducted for classes 5 and 8 from 2019-20.

The government's decision to do away with the board exams comes a day after Commissioner of School Education Siggy Thomas said the public exams for these classes were mainly to have a uniform and fair assessment of learning outcomes of students.

In a statement, she appealed to the parents not to panic about the board exams and said the 40 marks for formative assessment of students would continue to happen at the school level and only the remaining 60 marks of summative assessment would be done through a common question paper.