DHARMAPURI: The School Education department will offer special coaching to students who had failed to turn up for the class 11 and 12 exams and ensure they write the supplementary exams.
As many as 2,680 of the registered 22,301 students in Dharmapuri did not turn up for the exam, which began last week. In class 11, of the total 22,780 students over 2,837 failed to turn up for the examination. Further data shows that over 7 to 10 children were absent in some schools. In the Computer Science exam for class 12 students over 856 students were absent.
R Krishnamurthy a Class 12 teacher in a government school said most of the absentees were students who had enrolled, but did not attend classes regularly. “One of the causes for this is the pandemic, since the pandemic. Students were declared pass and the long gap has affected their learning capacity. In some cases, some students have been working as labourers. Many girl students were married off”, he said.
M Prathapan, secretary of Tamil Nadu farmers association said, “Students who failed to turn up for the exams are mostly from rural backgrounds. The School Education department must identify these students and enroll them in classes. We will identify these students through SMCs and school teachers. Poor performing students and students who have dropped out must be ensured education to prevent social evils like child marriages and child labourers,” he said.
Officials in the School Education Department said, special camps will be conducted by the Education department across the district to identify dropouts. “We will ensure that all students are counselled and educated. We will ensure that these students will be participating in the Supplementary exams,” an official said.