MADURAI
Teachers, students and parents across the district heaved a sigh of relief, following the announcement of the State government cancelling the State Board Class 10 public examinations, which were earlier scheduled to commence from June 15.
The exams for certain papers that were scheduled to be held for Class 11 were also cancelled. All the Class 10 students are to be considered ‘having passed’ the public examination.
R. Jansi Rani, a teacher from TVS Lakshmi School, said that it was the best decision to cancel the examinations as safety of the students was very important as the number of COVID-19 positive cases were rising across the state.
Concurring with this viewpoint, a headmaster of a Corporation school said that it would have been difficult to ensure personal distancing among students if public examinations were conducted. “ This was evident when students came to school recently to get their hall tickets,” he said.
S. Muthu Nithyashree, a student, said that she was stressed and anxious for several weeks and was finally relieved following the announcement. “My friends and I were confused as to how the public examinations would be conducted,” she said.
It would have been better if this announcement was made earlier, said K. Mathura, a parent.
Though the teachers welcomed this announcement, they raised a concern regarding awarding of marks for the student.
According to the government’s announcement, 80% marks would be awarded to the students based on their performance in quarterly and half-yearly examinations and their attendance would be taken into account for awarding the remaining 20% marks.
“Students would not have scored well during the school examinations. Hence, awarding their final scores based on this performance would bring down their overall scores,” said the Corporation school headmaster.