PMK founder Dr. S. Ramadoss on Monday said that Class X public examinations should be postponed citing the steadily rising rate of COVID-19 cases in Chennai and a few other districts. He also urged the State government to promote all Class X students to Class XI.
In a statement, Dr. Ramadoss said the government’s insistence on holding public examinations when everyone was against it did not augur well for it.
“There is a talk that senior officials in the School Education Department too are against holding the public examinations in the current situation. Agreed that Class X examinations needs to be held, but what is the need to insist that the examinations for subjects that couldn’t be held for Class XI should also conducted when they are not going to be considered for anything?” asked Dr. Ramadoss.
Dr. Ramadoss said the testing rates showed that one in 5.5 persons tested positive for COVID-19. “In a city that has 1 crore people, we can guess how many people will be positive for COVID-19,” he added.
At a time when police, doctors, nurses and sanitary workers were being affected by COVID-19, it was dangerous to get 10 lakh students into examination halls. In the same way, it was dangerous to bring 8.32 lakh Class XI students back into exam halls to write a single exam. “This is akin to ensuring the spread of COVID-19,” said Dr. Ramadoss.
He added, “It is not just dangerous but also a horrible experience for students especially to write a 3-hour examination wearing facemasks. Even if we say that 100 students will write an exam together, the students will be using a common bathroom for 5 days. This would result in spread of COVID-19.
“Just like the government announced that every student studying from Class I to Class IX had passed to the next class, this should be extended until Class XI. I hope that the School Education Minister has welfare of the students of Tamil Nadu in his heart. I hope he will erase the fears of students, parents and people by taking the correct decision,” said Dr. Ramadoss.
