Tamil Nadu government school students denied hall tickets?

Chennai: For a dozen students of Government boys’ higher secondary school at Pattukottai, Thanjavur, exams are like a mirage, thanks to school authorities who allegedly denied them hall tickets.

Nandhakumar, son of a painter, who opted for commerce group is now a daily labourer in a shoe mart, whereas his classmates are appearing for the on going board exams.

The exams started on March 4. After missing four exams, education authorities gave them hall tickets on March 12. “The teachers called us to school in February. Alleging our son was irregular to   school, they said, he won’t pass if he writes the plus-2 exams in March. They asked him to appear for instant exams and didn’t give the hall ticket,” said Rajeswari, mother of Nandhakumar.

But suddenly officials took him from the shop to Thanjavur and gave him his hall ticket on March 12 for the exams which started on March 4. “The officers got him to sign a few forms. Nandhakumar told us that along with some others he went to Thanjavur. We scolded our son for going to Thanjavur without informing us,” she said.

The locals alleged that the headmaster in a bid to ensure that the school achieved cent per cent results in plus-2 exams, didn’t allow students to take exams. All these students hail from poor families.” The students were not even allowed to participate in practical exams.

The headmaster said for the last four months, the 12 students were absent.
“They were absent during the practical examination held in February first week. Later on, the hall ticket was received on February 29.”

He said the students names were registered as the nominal roll was prepared in the first week of August 2015 for writing the board examination.  After entering the nominal roll, nobody can be rejected from writing the examination.

The students were away because they were working as labourers in various places like Tirupur and Coimbatore.  But the students were given hall tickets,” he said.

He also said there was no complaint from the collector’s office or from the chief educational officer regarding this issue.“I joined here only on December 21 and these students were absent since November. There were no complaints from parents,” he said.

N. Subbaiyan, Thanjavur Collector, said, “The boys themselves did not appear for the examination. They were not prevented from sitting for the examination. I asked the chief educational officer to be in touch with the boys. They appeared for one examination. But the boys told the CEO they were not prepared for the examination. Therefore, I said special coaching classes should be conducted to help the students.”

The CEO of Thanjavur, Thiruvalarselvi, said the students had said they were not prepared for the examination. “We gave counselling to the students. We usually give the hall tickets to the headmasters and they in return give it to teachers. The headmaster handed over the hall tickets to all students. They were not present for four months.”