Protest as Kendriya Vidyalaya kids detained in classes IX, XI in Chennai

CHENNAI: Parents staged a protest at Kendriya Vidyalaya (KV), Anna Nagar, on Thursday, claiming that about a third of their wards studying in Classes 9 and Class 11 were detained unfairly.The situation is not very different across other branches as well, claim other parents and students.In the Anna Nagar KV,  for example, 29 per cent students were detained in Class 9 and 22 per cent in Class 11 in the 2017-18 batch, according to S Vallabhan, Principal of the school. However, only 8.2 per cent and 7.4 per cent of students were detained in the academic year 2016-17, he claimed.

“Nearly 70 students out of 200 failed in my class and only three further passed after the re-test,” claimed a Class 9 student from the school, who has been detained. The boys, who didn’t want to be identified, had failed in two subjects.Students, who failed in more than one subject, were not allowed to appear for improvement test, some claimed, adding that the maximum number of subjects a student can fail in was four last year.

However, this criterion was not applied uniformly across branches. While in most schools, the limit is relatively lenient for Class 9 students, it is more stringently applied to Class 11 students.This sudden increase in the number of detained students has taken parents by shock. “My son scored a centum in his Class 10 board exams. And suddenly they are detaining him in Class 11. I don’t see how the performance of a third of his classmates could become so bad in one year,” said A Raman (name changed), parent of a student in the KV, Anna Nagar.

The student, who failed in three subjects, was not allowed to appear for improvement test. A parent, whose ward studies at the KV’s Island Grounds branch, said his son was not allowed to write the re-test as he had failed in two subjects. Another KV principal, who did not want to be identified, said that the sudden increase in failures can be attributed to several reasons. “Until last year, students followed a semester exam pattern where they could divide their syllabus and study. This year, however, because of the single annual exam format, they are struggling to cope with the situation,” the principal said.