PUDUCHERRY: Leader of the Opposition R Siva has strongly condemned the Puducherry government's move to implement compulsory public examinations for students of classes 3, 5, and 8, calling it the "greatest injustice" done to schoolchildren.
Siva said that the school education department has sent a circular stating that public exams will be conducted in classes 3, 5 and 8 from this year. He warned that compulsory exams in lower classes would disproportionately affect students from economically weaker sections, potentially forcing many to drop out and take up manual labour, thus deepening existing educational inequalities.
He accused the BJP-NR Congress alliance government of succumbing to pressure from the centre and pushing the National Education Policy (NEP) without considering the local context or the welfare of government school students. He alleged that the NEP, along with the CBSE and trilingual policies, were being forced upon Puducherry in alignment with the RSS ideology, thereby undermining the state's earlier balanced and bilingual education policy.
Citing last year's performance of government schools after the introduction of CBSE for all classes, Siva pointed out that a very high percentage of students in classes 9 and 11 failed, largely due to untrained teachers unfamiliar with the English medium. "More than 90% of government school teachers are from a Tamil medium background. Expecting them to suddenly teach in English without adequate training is unrealistic and unfair to students," he noted.
“While Tamil Nadu's Chief Minister MK Stalin has firmly opposed the NEP, the Puducherry Chief Minister has gone along with it. Is this the legacy of Kamaraj, who revolutionised education? Or is this government determined to push underprivileged students into a cycle of poverty and illiteracy?” Siva questioned.
He urged the Puducherry government to reconsider the decision and called for a united struggle against what he termed an "assault on social justice and educational equity." He also warned that the DMK would mobilise public opposition if the policy was not reversed.
"Education is a right, not a privilege. We will not allow it to become a tool of exclusion," he said.