The government’s decision to postpone the Class 12 Stateboard exams has brought much relief to teachers, parents and students who had expressed concern about the exams beginning from May 5, amidst the number of COVID-19 cases increasing by the day in Tamil Nadu. Over 8 lakh students were scheduled to take up the board exams from May 5 and it would have involved thousands of teachers coordinating the mammoth exercise.
The State government has said that the ongoing practical exams for students can go on as per schedule. “The exams will go on till the end of this week. They are being conducted as per the SoP that the Directorate of Government Examinations has given us. After their exams, students are immediately sent back home and would not be on school campus for more than two to three hours,” said G.J. Manohar, Correspondent, MCC Higher Secondary School.
After the practical exams are over, revision sessions will move online for schools until the announcement of a fresh schedule for conducting the board exams.
“While we welcome the decision to postpone the exams keeping the welfare of students and teachers in mind, the State government should clarify at the earliest as to when a decision would be taken on scheduling the board exams. Such information would help give students some direction and help them stay on track,” said K.R. Nandhakumar, Secretary, Tamil Nadu Nursery Primary Matriculation Higher Secondary and CBSE schools association.
Both the CBSE and ICSE too had announced their decision to postpone the public exams for their Class 12 students as well recently. The CBSE had announced that a decision would be taken on their board exams after a review meeting on June 1.
The School Teachers Federation of India (STFI) in a statement welcomed the decision to postpone the exam. Many teachers associations in the State had raised concerns about conducting the exams in May when cases were increasing, and had said that students would be at risk, as well as staff members with co-morbidities.
