Opposition parties of Tamil Nadu including the DMK have decried the announcement of public examinations for class 5 and 8 students. They urged the state government to withdraw its decision. The ruling AIADMK’s ally PMK also has condemned the move.
“I strongly condemn the AIADMK government issuing a sudden order that public examination will be conducted for class 5 and 8 from this academic year. It is worrying that the School Education minister Sengottaiyan didn’t realise the basic truth that it would create severe stress to students who already face several examinations till they finishing their studies”, observed DMK president MK Stalin in a statement.
He further stated, “Students are already facing public examination for class 10, 11 and 12. And the new public examination for class 5 and 8 would be a big blow to the students' community. And it would create stress, frustration and would spoil their health also."
He urged the state government to take steps to withdraw its order to conduct public examination for class 5 and 8 students who are studying in the state board syllabus.
CPM state secretary K Balakrishnan stated in a press release, “The decision for conducting public examination for class 5 and 8 is not based on the student’s welfare. When there are many ways to know the students’ learning ability, conducting public examination is not a good approach".
He further stressed that the students' organisationa, educationalists and political parties should come together to protest against the state government’s move.
The state secretary of PMK youth wing, one of the alliance partners of the ruling AIADMK-led alliance, Dr Anbumani Ramadoss has also urged the state government to withdraw the announcement decision.
Tamil Nadu government will not publish the board exam results of the students of classes 5 and 8 for the next three years and no student will be detained until class 8 till 2022, said the state's School Education Minister KA Sengottaiyan on Saturday speaking at an event at a private school in Chennai.
The state government had announced the introduction of these exams on Friday and has received stiff criticism since. The BJP-led union government recently released a draft National Education Policy which had proposed such public exams for elementary school students. Tamil Nadu was one of the states which witnessed much opposition to the proposal. The draft education policy is yet to be adopted by the union government, but the Tamil Nadu government has replicated the proposal in the draft education policy.