CHENNAI: The chorus is rising for schools to reopen for classes 10 and 12, while parents of other students affirm that they would prefer online classes. Friday will be the last day for parents to submit feedback to the government on reopening schools for students of Classes 10 and 12 after the Pongal holidays.
While many parents are concerned about sending their wards back to school, they are also concerned about the upcoming public exams. Schools have been shut since last March, leaving students with limited or no hands-on training in laboratory work.
Further, students have had no experience physically writing tests and exams under a time constraint and external supervision this academic year. Private schools have lobbied for reopening for a few months now. Many schools said parents have refused to pay the full fee as teaching is being done remotely. Schools claim to have financial deficits.
KR Nandhakumar, leader of the Tamil Nadu Matriculation, Higher Secondary and CBSE Schools Association, said there was an overwhelming response asking for schools to be reopened. “How will students face the public exams without any training or idea about the syllabus?” he asked, and added that most parents are comfortable sending their wards to school.
“Students of private schools may be able to do exams online. But students from government and aided schools won’t be unable to afford this,” said a Class 10 maths teacher from a government school in Chennai. Since the State Board exams have always been uniform, it won’t be fair if exams are held online, he said, and added, “At least last year, we had internal assessments we could use to extrapolate for final scores. As we do not have them this year, physical exams may be the only option.”
S Arumainathan, president, Tamil Nadu Students Parents Welfare Association, told Express “With the new variant of Covid-19, the government is scared to take a quick decision. But parents are getting restless. The government should be fair to students of both government and private schools.”
PK Ilamaran, leader of the Tamil Nadu Government Teachers Association, said the government should permit doubt-clearing sessions at least. He added that the government should also quickly announce the priority syllabus, based on which the public exam question paper would be set. “The government said 40 per cent of the syllabus will be slashed. We do not know which part will remain,” he asserted.