CHENNAI: Come March, children as young as nine years old will be walking into big exam halls to take public exams. The Tamil Nadu government’s recent announcement of public exams for Class 5 and 8 students has surprised most academics and educationists who see it as an unwise move. The only supporters of the move seem to be managements of private schools. Why has the issue so charged educationists? The reasons cited by the educationists range from public exams causing unnecessary burden on children and parents to such exams killing the joy of learning.
When Express asked the state school education department officials about rationale for the move, the main reason they cited in support of public exams is that they would inculcate a sense of seriousness in students and as well as in the teachers. One official said it would ensure at least a minimum quality in learning. “Also, the teachers will also have to teach properly because their students have to perform. If the students don't do well ultimately the teachers will bear the brunt of it, " said a senior official.
However, educationists say this is akin to throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Citing globally agreed principles and recent studies on child development, their arguments against the public exams for young children are loud and strong.
One, the board exams will cause excessive stress on children. This is the reason most commonly cited by almost all educationists Express spoke to. A public exam is very different from regular exams conducted by the class teacher. The person who sets the question papers and the person evaluating them are both completely alien to the children. More importantly, the scores of the children, when publicly announced are not just seen as a reflection of the capabilities of the child, but are treated as a matter of prestige for the whole family. Children, even as young as 10, will understand that they are at the centre of this. M Anandakrishnan, head of Tamil Nadu’s new Curriculum Framework Committee formed in 2017, said, “It is a wrong policy decision. This will cause lot of stress on the children. Preparing for a public exam is not like preparing for a class exam. When there is a public exam, parents will start putting the children in tuition and add to the burden on the children.”
As per the recent government order, only for three years from now will the results not be declared. After that, the results will be declared and the students who scored poorly will be detained in the same class. “It is like taking steroids for a mild cold or stomach ache. It may cure the ailment, but in the process kill all the other systems (in our body),” said R Ramanujam, another member of the curriculum framing committee and a professor at The Institute of Mathematical Sciences. A study conducted in 2014 among students in Tamil Nadu showed that over 70 per cent of exam-going students manifested moderate anxiety. This was higher among Class 12 students. The study suggested that students needed psychological counselling. Educationists said that when even Class 12 students faced so much stress, the state of younger children would be far worse.
Psychiatrist Dr Lakshmi Vijayakumar, founder of suicide prevention centre Sneha, is globally-known for her research on suicide prevention strategies. She noted that already 2,500 people were ending their lives in India every year due to exams. "We don't want the numbers to rise," she said. "It is not advisable to have board exams at that young age. There will be pressure to score well," she explained.
Two, board exams are not indicator of actual learning. Studies on how human intelligence develops have showed that pen-and-paper tests are not an accurate reflection of what children have learnt. “Paper-and-pen tests are not even a proxy indicator of intelligence. You cannot judge human intelligence with such tests. They are unfair to the child. It is just about what they remember from what they were doing for the last month,” said Aruna Ratnam, former project director, UNICEF. What is more important among younger children is cognitive development. Harvard University’s Centre on Developing Child, a widely-respected resource on issues of child development emphasises on physical activities among younger children for development of their various abilities. This includes age-appropriate activities for children. The threat of a looming public exam and success in that as a sole criterion of child’s learning ability means the child will be deprived of time for other such activities.
Three, young children may not even be ready for a public exam. Educationist Prince Gajendra Babu said there was no proper understanding of the child in State's decision to hold public exams. “A Class 5 child may not write down an answer even if he knows is. For example, if the question is 'what colour is this ball?'. The child has to write it down in the exam paper. The child may very well know the colour, but it may not write it down. It depends on the mood of the child at that moment. Even minor things could cause emotional disturbance in children and they may not feel like writing down the answer,” he said.
Four, public exams lead to stigmatisation of children. While the objective of a board exam is to ensure quality of learning by detaining students who failed to score a particular mark, the other side of it is the serious psychological damage caused to children. Educationists said children these days have become very conscious of their image. “It is also a social stigma for a child to have to study with his juniors,” said Rathnam. This will push the child to drop out of the school and once and for all lose a protected space for childhood so far guaranteed by the schools. More importantly, there is no research study to support the claim that detaining a student in a class improves the learning of the child. Even the Union government admitted as much. In its rationale for the Right to Education Act, 2009, it said, “There is no study or research that suggests that the quality of the learning of the child improves if the child is failed. In fact, more often than not the child abandons school/learning altogether.”
Five, public exams are unfair to rural and poor children. The infrastructure for learning is still so backward in rural and peri urban areas that educationists said that having a common public exam amounted to punishing children from disadvantaged backgrounds for the failure of the State. “Most of the children from rural areas are first-generation learners. It will scare them to have to take public exams and they will not return to school once they are failed in a class. Still, there are about 150 auto drivers in Hosur who cannot get a driving license because they have not passed Class 10. If we start failing children in schools, then it means we will ensure a large section of disadvantaged people never be able to come up in life,” said S Subramani, state general secretary of Tamil Nadu Science Forum, who also runs a school at Vellore. Also, Class 10 pass out certificate titled a “secondary school leaving certificate” is not a competency certificate, but school completion certificate. The assumption that it should be given only to those who have achieved a certain level of competency is incorrect.
Six, are public exams legal? The Tamil Nadu government's recent order announcing public exams for Class 5 and 8 quotes the recent amendment made to the Right to Education Act by the Central government. However, the amendment may have been misinterpreted. The amendment says there can be “regular exams” for Class 5 and 8. This been interpreted as the sanction to conduct “public exams”. The difference is that a regular exam is conducted at a school level and by teachers who are familiar with the children. A public exam is a common test conducted across the state and students may have to take the test in another school which may be common examination centre. The amendment says the state governments can “allow the schools to hold back the child in class 5 or 8...” The implication is that only the schools can conduct the exams, not the school education department for all the schools in the State. Curiously, Section 30 (1) of the RTE Act is still exists and it categorically states, “No child shall be required to pass any Board examination till completion of elementary education.” The state government’s order uses the term “public exam" and authorises district education officials, not the schools, to carry out activities necessary for the exams, which means the “public exams” indeed amount to “board exams". This is in contradiction to the RTE Act. Interestingly, while TN has acted on amendment, no other state or even the Central Board of Secondary Education has announced public exams for Class 5 and 8.