CHENNAI: Private schools may once again stop giving importance to Class 11 syllabus as the government has withdrawn its proposal to give a consolidated higher secondary mark sheet, say some teachers’ associations.
On Saturday, School Education minister KA Sengottaiyan, announced that separate mark sheets each for 600 marks will be issued for Classes 11 and 12. He also said Class 12 mark sheet alone will be enough for higher education. “We received complaints that students get too stressed and are unable to deal with the pressure. In order to ease the pressure on students, we decided that only Class 12 marks will be sufficient for higher education,” the minister told reporters on Saturday.
The government last year, introduced board exams for Class 11 and a consolidated mark sheet, to ensure that schools do not give unequal importance to Class 12. The composite mark sheets of both years put together was brought in, as students performed poorly in first year of college, which is based on Class 11 syllabus.
“In government schools, we always give equal importance to both Class 11 and 12. But, private schools rush through the first year, give importance to Class 12 exams and score better and make it to the better colleges,” said KPO Suresh, president of Tamil Nadu Post Graduate Teachers’ Association, adding that this may even lead to students migrating to private schools.
“Students who go to private schools have better exposure and can get privately coached for competitive exams. School is the only exposure for government school students. When Class 11 public exam’s importance is reduced, students will not have incentive to study well,” he said.
However, teachers from private schools welcomed the decision. “Simply knowing that their higher education will depend on only 600 marks and not 1,200 marks will reduce a lot of stress on them,” said A Mayavan, a history teacher.
Divided opinion