The Associated Management of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka made it clear that even if the order to make public exams compulsory for class VII students is implemented, they will refuse to cooperate. This, despite the fact that Minister for Primary and Secondary Education Suresh Kumar announced that public exams would be held for class VII students.
"Holding public exams in class VII is an injustice to students and is just to create a fear factor. There is a 'no-detention policy' followed by the government which holds such a public exam pointless. Even students who fail will be promoted to the next level," said Shashi Kumar D, General Secretary of the association.
"There is no provision in the RTE act to hold a public exam in class VII. Moreover, the government has announced it in the middle of the school year and they will not implement it this academic year themselves. As per the RTE Act, a child can be detained if he or she does not pass exams in class V and VIII. Since the Karnataka government does not consider Class VIII as Higher Primary, as per National Education Policy, they want to hold the exam in class VII," Kumar added.
In addition, to this the association has written a letter to Suresh Kumar stating that the quality of content in state syllabus textbooks is poor for classes I to V. They demanded that the textbooks be on par with NCERT guidelines, especially for Maths and EVS between classes I to V. They have submitted a complaint on State Text Book Society based on 'Analysis of textbooks developed by the state of Karnataka by NCERT 2017'.
"As per the report, the textbooks supplied to English medium schools across Karnataka are substandard and are not on par with National Curriculum Framework 2005 NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training) guidelines," Kumar said.
An excerpt of the letter quoting the analysis for Math textbook class I reads that this book does not provide any opportunity for young learners to construct their own knowledge. Rather it maintains focus on terminologies and writing numerals again and again. For English language, class V, the analysis reads that the material is appropriate for second language learning because the content and language are simple.
The association demanded that private schools be allowed to use their own syllabus.
In order to promote Kannada language and culture, the associate will be holding a two-day cultural festival Karnataka Vaibhava on November 29 and 30 at Freedom Park.
