CHENNAI: The school education department on Thursday clarified that teachers will continue to be appointed as scribes for students with disabilities appearing for Class 10 and Class 12 public examinations.

Earlier, it had planned to appoint interested college students and Illam Thedi Kalvi volunteers for the purpose.

The clarification comes after concerns over a circular issued in January barring subject teachers from acting as scribes and directing district officials to identify interested college students and Illam Thedi Kalvi volunteers for the role.

As several districts were struggling to find adequate numbers of volunteers and train them in time, the move had caused anxiety among parents of children with disabilities and school headmasters, who feared that students would be affected due to a shortage of trained scribes with the examinations just weeks away. 

TNIE had highlighted the issue in its February 16 edition.

Teachers working in special schools said that if the department intended to do away with the practice of appointing subject teachers as scribes, the process should have been initiated at the beginning of the academic year to create a pool of trained scribes.

According to officials, nearly 7,000 students appearing for the Class 10 exams and nearly 12,000 students sitting for the Class 12 exams require scribes this year.

Meanwhile, teachers have urged the department to install CCTV cameras in all exam centres, on a par with neighbouring states, to prevent instances of subject teachers allegedly writing exams on behalf of students without dictation and to curb private schools from appointing scribes for ineligible candidates.