CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government on Tuesday announced that there will be no public exam for students from class 5 and 8, much to the relief of students, parents and teachers.
In a circular issued by School Education Minister KA Sengottaiyan, the department has said that it has withdrawn the order passed on September 13, 2019 to conduct board exams for Class 5 and 8 from this
academic year.
This means that the schools will continue following the exam system that is already in place for the students. "We received a lot of feedback and comments from various stakeholders in the education
sector about the exams. And taking all this into consideration, we have decided to stop the board exams for the Class 5 and 8 students," the circular said.
Since its announcement last year, the exams have come under intense criticism from all stakeholders. Educationists and activists argued that putting such young children through public exams will cause
immense stress and curtail their ability to ask questions and be curious.
A few days ago, it had been reported that a Class 8 student from Peerkankaranai had committed suicide and the parents had suspected that the stress over the board exams could have pushed him to take the extreme step.