THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state literacy mission’s move to conduct the Class IV and Class VII equivalency exams in the second week of December has drawn flak from the literacy instructors or ‘preraks’. According to them, the learners are ill-equipped to face the examinations as they have not been provided adequate classes.
The preraks have submitted a memorandum to General Education Minister V Sivankutty urging him to direct the literacy mission to postpone the examination. They demanded that the examination should be conducted only after sufficient classes are provided to the learners.
The learners had enrolled for the Class IV and Class VII literacy programmes in January-February last year. However, owing to the Covid spread, their classes could not be held for many months. At present, the option of online classes is provided only for learners of Class X and Higher Secondary equivalency programmes.
“In the wake of the pandemic, we were directed to be a part of Covid prevention activities carried out by local bodies. There are instances where some of the learners were not able to attend even a single class,” said A A Santhosh, vice-president, Kerala Saksharatha Preraks’ Association.
The preraks also alleged that they were given strict orders by the literacy mission to find sufficient number of candidates for the examination in December. However, the literacy mission authorities denied such a charge. “The district coordinators had convened a meeting of preraks in October to fix the dates for the examination. It was only after gathering their feedback that a decision was taken to conduct the exams in December only for those learners who are willing to attend them,” said P S Sreekala, director, Literacy Mission. She said the number of candidates who have opted to attend the Class IV and Class VII equivalency examination in December was 6,222 and 9,498, respectively.
While admitting that classes could not be carried out in full swing owing to Covid, Sreekala said there was a huge demand to conduct the exam from the learners who adopted self-study or were assisted in their studies by family members. “A separate exam will be conducted at a later stage for other learners after proper classroom-based instruction,” she added.