CHENNAI: Students of Classes XI and XII in state board schools will have two exams fewer to write from this academic year with the school education department deciding to scrap a nearly 40-year-old policy of having two papers each for English and other languages and introducing a system with just one paper each. The decision has gladdened children, parents and others who feel it would reduce stress, but a few education experts said it the old system had a few more advantages. The number of days of exams too will come down from eight to six and will be applicable to quarterly, half-yearly and other tests.
State does not have enough language teachers: Experts
Chennai: “A decision to make it a single paper for Plus One and Plus Two students was taken at a consultative meeting of the department on June 4,” saidtheorder issuedby the department on June 9. The system of two papers for each language was introduced in 1980 with each paper being for 200 marks.
While a TOI report on April 26 had mentioned the government’s plans of doing away with the old system of having two language papers, a high-level committee under school education minister K A Sengottiyan met in May and discussed ways and means for the merger its implications. “Experts said there would not be any effect on the nature of the question paper and that there would be no extra stress on students,” said a departmentofficial.
Individual experts, however, do not accept the government theory that the decision was taken solely to reduce stress of students. “There are not enough teachers for English and the languages. The government is facing a shortage of teachers for evaluation of these exam papers and that is the main reason for lowering the number of exams,” said Prince Gajendra Babu, educationist and general secretary of the State Platform for Common School System.
The advantagesof two language papers were many with the text books able to include a variety of topics to help students gain indepth knowledge. Prose, poetry, grammar and non-detailed portions were equally distributed for all the languages, to help the teachers evaluate a student’s skill thoroughly, said Babu. In the new system, the education department has taken care to ensure that the syllabi and the textbooks are not changed, but teachers may not be able to evaluate students properly, he added.
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