Hold Class 10 boards or declare all pass? Govt in a fix

Caught in a fix, the Tamil Nadu government has now sought the opinion and feedback from the educationists and parent-teacher associations.

More than 9.5 lakh Class 10 students were to appear for the board exams from March 27 to April 13. However, the government postponed it to April 15 following the virus threat. With the Centre declaring an extension of the lockdown till April 14, parents and teachers are bewildered whether the exams will be held on April 15 itself. The School Education department too admitted that several works including the process of issuing hall tickets and activities in the exam centres have come to a grinding halt due to the lockdown.

A senior official from the Directorate of School Education told DT Next that it would be difficult to conduct SSLC exams on April 15. “Many works including issuing of hall tickets for nine lakh students, transportation of question papers and answer sheets and preparations inside the exam centres cannot be done in a single day and therefore the authorities have already advised the government to postpone the exams further,” he added.

“In addition, there were several demands from teachers, parents and educationists to reschedule the exams to June or declare ‘all pass’ as it was announced for Classes one to nine students,” he said adding “they also further stated that most of the schools have not completed the portions and therefore many students will be affected”.

Stating that as the communication between the officials from the Directorate of Examinations and School Education Department has been poor due to the ongoing crisis, the official said “a clear picture will emerge only on April 15”.

Tamil Nadu Teachers Association President PK Ilamaran said the government should declare ‘all pass’ even for Class 10 students and conducting exams for them amid the spread of virus will not be safe.

Echoing similar views, State Platform for Common School System – Tamil Nadu, general secretary PB Prince Gajendra Babu said after declaring ‘all pass’ for Class 10 students, the State government should instruct all the schools including private institutions to give admissions for the students in their choice of stream.

Tamil Nadu government has launched a ‘special care’ initiative to ensure the safety of the students who are pursuing higher studies in various State-run colleges and are stuck in the hostels.

Accordingly, a special team, comprising officials from the Department of Technical and Collegiate Education, has been constituted to take details of the students who are still staying in hostels to ensure that they get proper food and medical facilities in the wake of COVID-19 threat.

A senior official from the Higher Education Department said it is important to ensure the safety of the students, especially those who could not move to their natives due to the lockdown.

“Though we have issued orders to the students to vacate, it has come to our notice that a few are still staying back for several reasons,” he said adding “therefore, it has been decided to take a data on those stranded in hostels and provide them with all the facilities, including food and medical kits”.

Stating that non-teaching staff, especially hostel wardens were asked to stay alert in case of any emergency, he said they were also asked to keep in touch with the students regularly for any requirement.

“All the students will be updated with the latest information from the government side about reopening of colleges and rescheduling of exams,” the official said.

He said special arrangements were also made that the post-matric scholarships and financial assistance for post-graduate students studying in government colleges will reach the beneficiaries well before the reopening of the institutions.