CHENNAI: The State government, at a high-level meeting with the Centre, has informed that it is inclined to conduct class 12 public examinations at a convenient schedule later. The virtual meeting was chaired by Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank and Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday to discuss the feasibility of holding the class 12 public exams and entrance exams for professional courses.
“Class 12 public exams are crucial in deciding higher education and career of students. There is no use in giving them ‘all pass’. Many other States including TN are in favour of conducting the exams,” State School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi told reporters after the meeting.
The Union government had sought views on the possibility of conducting the exams in July or August. States may opt to hold them in Multiple Choice Questions or objective type format. This proposal from the Centre is aimed at reducing the duration of the exams.
Tamil Nadu government, however, has expressed reluctance to swapping paper patterns. The State has time until Tuesday to submit its views on the matter. It is worth noting that the DMK government also opposed the ‘online-proctored exams’ conducted by Anna University and opted to conduct a written re-test whose answer sheets could be uploaded online or sent via post.
Minister Poyyamozhi, on May 11, convened a State-level meeting to discuss issues pertaining to the public exams. The class 12 board exams, which were supposed to begin in May after the 2021 Assembly elections, were postponed owing to the second wave of Covid-19 the State.
Higher Education Minister K Ponmudi also expressed opposition to NEET at the meeting and said that the entrance test should be used only for medical colleges run by the Centre and not by the State. He said that TN will use class 12 public exam scores for medical counselling, as done previously. In a statement later, he stated that media reports which claimed that a State-level entrance exam will be introduced for medical education is false and clarified that such an exam won’t be implemented.
Teacher Edu University applicants to get refund
Candidates who had applied for four-year Integrated Teacher Education Programme (ITEP) at Tamil Nadu Teacher Education University will receive a refund of their application fees soon. National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), in a circular on Saturday, announced that colleges will soon be given a refund of the application fees for the course. Colleges have been directed to then return the funds to the applicants.
Tamil Nadu Teacher Education University is among the list of institutions that received a nod in 2019 to host the programme and was set to launch the course in 2021-22. The Council has put off the plan to launch the ITEP by a year. Hence, the Council has said that it has completed the necessary procedure and forwarded the requisite details to the bank for crediting the refund into the accounts of colleges. The bank has informed NCTE that the procedure to refund the fee is underway, the council said.