Sources from the Tamilnadu School education Department have put to rest uncertainty on whether Board Exams will be held for Classes 5 and 8 in the state. Public exams for Classes 5 and 8 will indeed be held across Tamilnadu schools, beginning this academic year (2019-2020), a highly placed source within the School education Department confirmed to TNM.
Meanwhile this clarification comes after a few media reports on Wednesday claimed that board exams for Classes 5 and 8 will be conducted only after a period of 3 years. When, conducting exams for these two classes was proposed by the Central government back in February 2019, when the Right to education (RTE) Act was amended. Furthermore the RTE amendments effected by the Centre specifically prohibit schools from expelling students who fail their exams at the end of Classes 5 and 8, as education has been made compulsory for students until age 14.
Moreover the Tamilnadu government has decided to hold the exams, no student will be detained for the next three years (until 2021-2022) based of their performance in the said exams and the Tamilnadu government’s decision has drawn flak most opposition parties in the state. While DMK Chief MK Stalin said that this would create stress among students who already have to face public exams in classes 10 and 12.
