No board exam blues for tweens

“Why should my 10-year-old daughter, studying in class 5, write a board exam now?” asked my housemaid this week. This triggered a volley of questions in me as to why the government took the decision of conducting board exam for classes 5 and 8 this year and then rescinded it.

When the state government moved on the fast track by sending circulars to schools to prepare for board exams this academic year itself, parents and teachers were worried about the sudden development.

What were the reasons behind government’s ‘board exam’ decision? It was said exams would help the education department to check if schools were following the prescribed curriculum and also assess the success and weakness of the syllabus. If there were shortcomings, the government would rethink its strategies. There would not be any pass or fail in these exams.  

Some academicians felt the board exams would help students to face public exams without any fear. It would help identify areas of improvement and aid students in broadening their scope of learning. Beside, better evaluation methods would benefit both teachers and students.

But others questioned the need for putting board exam pressure on children. Not all kids do well in primary classes and assessing them and revising/updating syllabus based on their performance seemed unjustifiable. Also, if students were detained in the class based on their performance, the number of dropouts might go up. It would create stress in children and parents alike.   

Meanwhile, private schools also voiced their concern over conducting the board exams at a very short notice.

But what happened to the ‘no-detention’ policy?  The Right to Education Act, 2009, does not allow schools to detain students until they have completed elementary education. But recently, the Centre brought a new amendment to RTE Act saying the lack of pass/fail system has only deteriorated the quality of learning in schools. As per latest amendment, the Act allows state governments to hold a regular examination at the end of classes 5 and 8 and empowers them to detain students if they fail to clear the re examination. It also stated that the government may decide not to hold back a studentin any class till the completion of elementary education.

What is TN’s stand?  The Tamil Nadu cabinet is yet to approve the Centre’s amendment to RTE Act on no-detention policy.

Similar questions were raised last year when the Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) said classes 5 and 8 would have board exams. It said the results would not decide promotion of students. It would not give students a ‘pass-fail’ tag. Soon, the council backtracked and clarified that it was not a board exam and it had designed and developed a broad-based curriculum up to class 8.

At this juncture, lending an ear to the concerns of all stakeholders, discussing the pros and cons and then deciding on board exam would be a step in the right direction.