DMK president M.K. Stalin on Tuesday welcomed the Tamil Nadu government’s announcement on cancelling the class 10 standard State Board exams and stating that all students will be deemed to have passed the exams. Mr. Stalin also announced that the protests planned by the Secular Progressive Alliance in the State on June 10 stand cancelled, as the Chief Minister accepted their demands on cancellation of the exams.

In a statement, Mr. Stalin said all political parties, parents and teachers were demanding that the exams be cancelled in view of the rising number of COVID-19 cases and the need to safeguard the health of more than 9 lakh students who were slated to take the exams.

“Without any concern for the health of the teachers and the students at the examination centres, the government insisted it would hold the exams from June 15. The DMK and other political parties called on the government to cancel the examinations. Yesterday, the Madras High Court too asked the government why it was so keen on holding the exams at this time,” said Mr. Stalin.

The DMK president said despite that the government seemed to be not bothered even about the concerns raised by the High Court judges. Following this, the Secular Progressive Alliance decided to protest against the government’s decision on June 10, after which the government announced that all the students will be considered as having passed the exams, he said.

“This is a welcome announcement. But if the government had taken this decision earlier itself, it would have spared so much of tension and mental agony to students and parents,” he said.

“As the government has accepted the demands of all the political parties, the DMK and the allied parties have called off the protest,” he said. Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president K.S. Alagiri too, welcomed the announcement.

The AIADMK’s ally, Tamil Maanila Congress also welcomed the State government’s decision. “The government has taken the right decision at the right time,” TMC president G.K. Vasan said.