Tamil Nadu to introduce board exams for classes 5, 8

Recently, the Central Advisory Board on Education under the MHRD had decided to introduce board exams for classes five and eight. Accordingly, in January 2019, the Central Government published in its gazette that there should be regular examination for these two classes from this academic year.

It also said that State government should take steps to detain the students from both classes if they failed in the exam. However, the students have option to write the exams in June itself.

Following the MHRD order, Directorate of School Education under the School Education Department has taken a decision to implement it. A senior official from the directorate told DT Next that authorities are also taking measures to fix examination fees to conduct board exams for both classes.

All the district education offices have instructed school managements in their jurisdictions to send the details of the students by filling online application forms with immediate effect.

However, the official said that fees would not be charged from students of government schools. Stating that all the private school students would have to pay fees for board exams, the official added that each student from Class five would have to pay Rs 50, while it would be Rs 100 for Class eight students. Opposing the move, academicians here have urged the State government to retain the “no-detention” policy for the benefits of the students.

Dr P Ratnasabapathy, president, State Platform for Common School System, said students studying in classes five and eight do not have the age maturity to understand what is the exam. “In addition, they get inferiority complex when they detained in the same class,” he said, warning that this could lead to more dropouts in the coming years.