In a shocking development, nearly 50,000 students from Tamil Nadu who had registered for the Plus Two exam missed the Tamil Exam exam that was held a few days ago. A consultation with the authorities and teachers was held on behalf of the school education department, led by minister Anbil Mahesh Poiyamozhi.
Tamil Nadu School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh said,” The maximum number of absentees were from Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri, Dindigul, Tiruvannamalai, and Kallakurichi districts. Instead of waiting for the exams to get over and then analyzing the reasons behind the number of absentees, we have asked the Chief Educational Officers (CEOs) to work with schools and find out about the absentees after every exam.”
Minister said,” 5.6% of the total students did not appear for the 12th Board Tamil language exam. An online discussion with all officials including CEOs was held.”
“During board exams, the average absenteeism rate is around 4.5 percent. But the absenteeism rate has reached 5% this year. We are meeting with chief educational officers on Thursday and have already directed officials to investigate the reasons for exam absenteeism,” said the education minister.
He further said,” Of the absent students, 38,000 were from government schools; 8,500 students from government-aided schools, and over 1,000 students from private schools.”
He also stated that making students all pass during the COVID period, as well as a change in the attitude of students after COVID, are some of the reasons for students not attending the exam. He said,” In order to prevent the student from dropping out of school, we did not remove students from the list even if they had failed the Plus one exam. We provided “Hall Tickets” so that even if the students missed class, they could still show up at the last minute to take the exam. We will try to identify students who have not taken the exam, hold special classes for them, and encourage them to take the special exam in June. We’re going to hold management committee meetings at the school level on March 10 and April 24 in order to lower the rate of absenteeism.”
He further stated,” It has come to light that the parents, instead of sending their children to school, took them to work. After COVID, there is a situation where ‘counseling’ has to be given not only to the students but also to the parents. Parents must also be responsible and willing to send their children to school.”
He added,” Teachers’ salaries consume Rs 31,000 crore of the Rs 33,000 crore allocated in the budget for school education. Only Rs 2,000 crores are spent on school improvements!”
Minister Anbil Mahesh attempted to place the blame for absenteeism on the parents through his statement. Minister Anbil Mahesh opted to blame the parents rather than the teachers, who receive more than 95% of the budgeted funds for education in schools.
It is worth noting that about 47,000 out of the 9 lakh students who took the Class 10 state board exam in Tamil Nadu last year failed the Tamil language paper. This begs the logical question: Who is at fault—teachers or parents?
Nearly 40,000 students missed the 12th annual board exams last year. The supplementary instant examinations were taken by 51,000 candidates, including those who failed the final examinations.
(with inputs from Dinamalar)
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