Tamil Nadu Teachers’ Association seeks cancellation of extra board exams prescribed by NEP

The Tamil Nadu Teachers’ Association has, as a part of their NEP suggestions, urged the committee to continue with the bilingual policy as a trilingual one will be burdensome for students, especially from rural backgrounds. They also demanded that the board exams for third, fifth and eighth standard students were to be done away with.

PK Ilamaran, the President of the Association said in a statement that they were glad that the Department of School Education was seeking suggestions especially since they were unhappy with a few parts of the policy that he believes deprives students of social justice and equality. The Association said that vocation training for students threatens the possibility of going back to caste system, “Under the Prevention of Child Labor Act for children upto the age of 14, schools may turn into workers' factories in the guise of education,” the teachers feel. They also urged the NEP committee to mandate studying the mother tongue up till the tenth standard.

The Association insisted in their feedback that public entrance exams for college and university admissions would end up denying opportunities to rural and poor students. They also argued that allowing the option for students to graduate when they finish a year would reduce their interest in studies. “It is good to provide autonomy for government colleges.  But if private colleges get affiliated with the university and do not act under their supervision, it is a breeding ground for malpractice,” the Teachers said.

With regard to teacher training, the Association are of the opinion that holding interviews would allow for discrimination and abuse of power. “Appointments to higher posts of the educational institutions should continue based on seniority,” they added.

The Association reiterated a view of many others in the state that education should be brought to the state list, “Only if education is brought to the state list can education be designed to include education culture, culture, morality, heroism, wisdom, district news, climate according to the state context. State rights can be upheld.”