CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government on Monday reversed the decision to allow Class 11 students to opt to study either three core subjects or four core subjects along with language papers for their state board exams. In the academic year 2020-21, students will continue picking four core subjects and write their public exams for 600 marks.
The decision is a reversal of the order issued last September giving students the option of writing the public exams for 500 marks only. While the decision was made to reduce the burden on students, a senior official from the school education department told The New Indian Express that it received brickbats from the public.
The change in the course pattern was an attempt to ease the burden on the students and enable them to find time to prepare for competitive entrance examinations like the NEET and IIT-JEE. "The reduced syllabus was introduced so that students can only choose what they needed to apply for higher education and competitive exams," said a senior official from the school education department. While the government thought that the public would be pleased with the change, the response surprised them.
"Parents have told us that having only three subjects will limit the scope of programmes students can apply for higher studies. So we have reversed the decision," the official said. The present streams are Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Maths; Computer Science, Physics, Chemistry, Maths; Commerce, Accountancy, Economics, Computer Science or Business Maths.
"When the government said that it was working to reduce the syllabus burden, we were under the impression that they would merge the language papers alone. While giving the option of leaving out a subject will make things easy for students, they often do not have a choice in it," said the principal of a government-aided school. He said that it is often schools that call the shots on which group a student picks. "If a student studies really well, we ask the student to decide. For all other students we guide their options," she said.
The headmaster of a matriculation school in the city said that students will always opt for a reduced syllabus. "Most students do not want to study more. Cancelling that option to drop a core subject was bad because students may regret their choice later. In most cases, students will want to drop maths, which is crucial for many higher education programmes," he said.
Opposition leader MK Stalin welcomed the decision. However, AMMK leader TTV Dinakaran and CPI Tamil Nadu leader R Mutharasan said that the government has been confusing students by repeatedly making announcements and withdrawing them. The leaders said that the state should receive public feedback before making decisions instead.