Tamil Nadu students-teachers demand cancellation of 12th boards

Students, teachers, parents and academicians in Tamil Nadu have requested the M.K. Stalin government to cancel the Class 12 board examinations taking a cue from the central government's decision cancelling both the CBSE and ICSE exams.

Muruganandam, a Physics teacher at a government school at Namakkal told IANS: "Children are under severe stress and anxiety and the government must take immediate steps to cancel the Class 12 board examinations.

"We can take the assessment of the past six or seven examinations and take the average. It is not possible at present to conduct an exam and postponing would lead to the suffering of next academic year and hence the solution is cancelling of examinations."

A similar demand is being raised by students, who are studying under the state board.

Soumitra Narayanan, a Class 12 student at a government-aided school in Madurai told IANS: "My friends in the neighbourhood and all those studying under the CBSE and ICSE syllabus are relieved of the tension but I am still facingnightmares whether or not I will have to give the boards.

"If every board were conducting exams then we could also have done the same. Let the government take a decision soon. According to me must be cancelling the exams."

The Chief Education Officers office have directed school teachers to submit the marks obtained by students in the last seven examinations to assess their performance.

MR Manikantan, Director, Save Education, Tamil Nadu, an organization working in the academic sector at Erode told IANS: "It is better that the examinations for Class 12 boards are cancelled.

"As  the central government has already cancelled the CBSE and ICSE exams for 12th why is the state government taking time on a decision.

"Students are suffering and they are under huge tension. This will not do any good in the long run and hence immediate action is required, otherwise the next academic year will also suffer."

The government is taking opinion from all corners -- academic circles and political leadership before taking a call.

MDMK leader Vaiko has already called upon the Stalin government to postpone the board exams and conduct it once the pandemic situation comes down and had added that with a good educational infrastructure, Tamil Nadu can easily conduct the exams.