TN to hold public exams for classes 5, 8

Chennai: In a reversal to its earlier stand to continue with no detention policy, the Tamil Nadu government is preparing to hold public exams for classes 5 and 8 from this academic year.

According to officials from the school education department, the third term exam for both these classes will be converted as public exams.

They said the public exams are tentatively scheduled for two hours.

The directorate of government examinations (DGE) has been tasked with preparing question papers. It is preparing worksheets for class five students and descriptive question paper to class 8 students.

“The worksheets for class five students would have many pictorials and simple calculations. It will also have creative and simple questions to test comprehensive skills,” sources said.

For language papers, the students would be asked to write simple sentences and asked to fill the blanks.

“The question paper for class eight would be a descriptive type and test the understanding, writing skills of the students,” sources added.

As of now, the exam will have questions for about 50 marks. “We have not finalised the marks. The total marks will be converted to 100 marks,” officials from the school education department told this paper.

The school education department has asked the district education officials to identify exam centres.

“The government and government-aided schools which have students not less than 20 students will be provided with exam centres,” a district education official said.

The officials have been asked to collect the details like a number of students studying in classes five and eight in each and every school.

“We will set up the exam centres within three km distance. We also have to think about how to transport the students to the exam centres,” another official said.

They further added that there won't be any pass or fail in the current public exams.

However, as per the recent amendment to the Right to Education Act by the central government, if a child fails in the re-examination, the government may allow schools to hold back a child in class 5 or in class 8 or in both classes.

According to the new rule, if a student fails in the examination, he shall be granted an opportunity for re-examination within a period of two months from the declaration of results. They also need to be provided with additional instruction.

“It is the policy decision of the state government to continue with the no detention policy. They should not take this retrograde step, which, if it is implemented will drastically increase the school drop-outs,” warns educationist Prince Gajendrababu.

He further said it would affect the education of girl children as the parents will stop the girls from schools if they fail clear the exams.

“No detention policy is not an all pass policy or promoting the child without learning. It is to promote the child age appropriately, identifying the difficulty and help the child to overcome the difficulty,” he argued.

“Now, if TN wishes to drop the policy and introduce mandatory exam at the end of classes five and eight, that means they are turning the wheels back,” he added.

Restrictions on employing pvt teachers for exam work

The directorate of government examinations has put restrictions on employing private school principals and teachers for examinations work.

Providing detailed instructions on the manual for conducting the board exams to district educational authorities, the DGE has urged the officials to appoint government and government-aided school headmasters as chief superintendents at the exam centres.

"Wherever the headmasters are not available, the post-graduate teachers also could be appointed as chief superintendents," it has said.

"The directorate could not take action against the headmasters of the private schools for lapses. So, we decided to appoint only government and government-aided school headmasters as chief superintendents," sources said.

They also further instructed to appoint government school teachers as hall supervisors to monitor the exams.