CHENNAI: Commissioner of School Education Sigy Thomas Vaidhyan, in a public notice on Monday, said that formative assessment (40 marks) will continue at the school level in the public exams to be conducted for classes V and VIII from this year. Summative assessment (60 marks) only will be done through a common question paper.

The notice emphasised the government’s decision to not detain any students, even if they fail, for the first three years after the introduction of public exams. The main intent is to have a uniform and fair assessment of students’ learning outcomes, it said.

Appealing the parents to not panic, Vaidhyan said that while question papers will be set at the State-level, evaluation will happen at Cluster Resource Centres (CRC) within each district. “Answer sheets will be exchanged between schools within the CRC, and evaluated sheets will be sent to respective schools,” she said.