COIMBATORE: With over 50,000 Class 12 students skipping the Tamil paper of the board exams, the school education is taking steps to avert a similar situation during Class X exams, which begin on April 6.
Based on directions from the department, teachers across the state are tracing Class 10 students who have been irregular in attending classes.
According to official sources, student details are maintained at the EMIS portal. So, headmasters cannot remove the long absentee students' names without issuing Transfer Certificates. Even if students are long absentees, hall ticket for board exam is generated automatically for them. This is how officials came to know that a large number of Class 12 students who were long absent and got hall tickets did not write the exam.
"After learning a lesson from this, officers have started to trace students through graduate teachers to avert a repeat of the embarrassment,' sources added. S Sivasubbiah, headmaster of the government high school at Kannarpalayam in Karamadai, told TNIE, "Educational officers directed all headmasters to ensure that all students attend the Class 10 board exams.
Out of 45 Class 10 students in our school, only two boys didn't come to school from the middle of the academic year. I approached them and advised them to come to school, but they didn't do so. After the officers' order, I met the two students at their home again last week and found out they were working as coolies along with their parents.
The parents refused to send them to school as they wanted the boys to work for earning more for the family. When I warned them that I would contact the childline and legal action would be taken against them, the boys started coming to school regularly. " He said both the students wrote a practical exam on Monday.
T Arulanandham, science teacher in a government-aided school at Saibaba colony told TNIE, "Seven students did not come to school right from the beginning of academic year. I was able to trace one of the seven, and he is coming to school now. We couldn't trace the others due to various reasons, including migrating to other places."
Education development committee coordinator K Leninbarathi told TNIE, "Since the pandemic situation, many students quit studies due to various reasons, including poverty. The department should identify the problems and provide psychological counselling to the students."
When asked about it, a top officer from district school education department told TNIE that the teachers have managed to trace 150 long absentees of Class 10 from Coimbatore and they have been preparing for the exams.
The Directorate of Government Examination on Tuesday night has extended date for Science practical examinations till March 31 considering the long absentees students. The practical examination date was scheduled from March 20 to 28.
When asked about this, Karur Chief Educational Officer N Geetha told TNIE," As per the top officers direction, works for tracing Class 10 students who are long absentees is underway across the state. Due to the efforts of the teachers, some of the students attended the Class 10 practical exams."