CHENNAI: The school education department is planning to scrutinize government schools where students of classes 10-12 have not attended examinations and also take steps to bring them back to school. This will help to minimise the number of students who fail to attend the final examinations due to various reasons including fear, said officials.
At present, government schools across the state send periodical reports to the respective chief educational offices if a student is absent for more than three days. This is then sent to the respective district collectorate and students are traced with help of teachers. This data is also entered into the Education Information Management System (EMIS). However, teachers said there are several problems in this process. “Despite continuous insistence, many students still remain erratic. Moreover, inter-district migration of parents for employment complicates efforts to trace them,” said a teacher from Erode district.
Last year, the department came under criticism after reports that more than 50,000 in Class 12 did not attend the language examination. Officials said that this was because students who didn’t attend school regularly were part of the nominal roll for the final examinations. Although the number of students who didn’t attend the examinations will reduce if the department follows strict rules with respect to attendance, the number of students who remain out of the school system will still remain a concern. Another problem with EMIS is that there is no way to find out if a student has joined polytechnic or ITIs after Class 10 as the database only covers schools across the state.