CHENNAI: In the first 100 days, the DMK government took two major decisions in education. One is to conduct re-exam for more than 4.25 lakh engineering students who appeared for proctored online test in February. Second, when a majority of parents and teachers wanted the Class XII state board exams to be held, chief minister M K Stalin, however, decided to cancel them based on views of medical experts.
The first decision was not based on any logic as Anna University was the only state university in the country to come up with proctored online tests to conduct a semblance of an exam during the pandemic. Instead of helping other state universities to develop such online assessment tools and improve their assessment standard, the state government brought down the standard of Anna University exams to the level of other universities and announced that the re-exam will be unsupervised and only partly online. Academics called the move a regressive one as the job market would be flooded with lakhs of poorly qualified engineers.
The second decision had to be taken in view of the Covid-19 pandemic. The government had to come up with a weightage system keeping in mind the interest of rural and urban students and gave 50% weightage to Class X board exam marks. It affected the top scoring students as there was little difference between them and others. A majority of students and parents, however, were happy in the end. So, it's a mixed start with one bad decision and one good decision.
There are many positives, however, in the approach of the new government. The government appointed a committee headed by justice A K Rajan to study the impact of NEET in medical admissions and another committee headed by justice D Murugesan to study the representation of government school students in professional courses.
Now, with schools and colleges set to reopen physical classes, major challenges await the government. They include bringing back school dropouts, preventing child marriages and retaining students in government schools. More than 2 lakh children returned to government and aided schools from private schools.
"Surveys conducted by non-governmental organisations show that the students studying in Class IX and above have started working to support their families. Once they start earning, it is difficult to bring them back to school," said Aruna Ratnam, former education specialist with UNICEF.
Government colleges and state universities are crippled with faculty shortages and financial crises. At least three of the state universities are on the verge of collapse.
Education will be one of the key parameters in which the success or failure of the DMK government will be rated. Steps that are going to be taken in the next few months will not just decide the future of this government, but the future of the state.
