COIMBATORE: Only 139 students cleared the National Means - cum - Merit Scholarship (NMMS) exam this year from Coimbatore, evoking deep concern from teachers on the quality of coaching given to the aspirants.
NMMS exam was conducted on February 23 and around 5,100 students from Coimbatore took part. The Directorate of Government Examination (DGE) released the results on Saturday. A total of 6.695 students, out of the 2,22,985 candidates, cleared the test in Tamil Nadu.
"Only 117 students from Coimbatore education district and 22 from Pollachi education district cleared the exam in Coimbatore district. Last year, 191 students cleared the exam," sources added.
A secondary grade teacher K Uma (name changed) in Karamadai told TNIE, "Due to the lack of guidance, many students failed in the NMMS. District officers direct teachers to make sure students apply for the examination. They do not take steps to prepare the students for the exam in the proper way."
"The school education department should select the best teachers at the district level and let them handle the NMMS coaching classes in schools. This should be done at the beginning of the academic year," she added.
Another teacher K David from Sulthanpet said Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) questions were tough. "Students struggled to answer SAT in the exam as it was a higher-order thinking method. Teachers should teach concepts rather than make them memorise the lessons. Besides, teachers should conduct mock tests regularly," he suggested.
NMMS exam is conducted for class VIII government school students. To succeed, students should score 36 out of 90 on SAT and MAT. Successful students will get a scholarship of Rs 12,000 per annum till Class 12. Chief Educational Officer R Boopathy told TNIE that he would take steps to start the coaching classes for the NMMS exam at the beginning of the next academic year.