Students were asked to mark their caste classification on the OMR sheets provided in the exam hall during the National Achievement Survey Test that was held today for Classes 3, 5, 8 and 10. This has drawn flak from the educationists and teachers. Educationists pointed that asking caste details even from the students of Classes III and V is unacceptable. The test was conducted on November 12 by the NAS Cell of the CBSE in selected schools across Tamil Nadu, except Chennai and few other districts due to rains.
The categories of caste mentioned in the OMR sheets provided to the students included SC, ST, OBC and General Category. "In my experience, most of the students belonging to primary classes don't know which caste they belong to. Hence, asking them to fill up caste category is unacceptable. They don't even know what these caste categories and why they are marked. In the application forms, students are asked to mark the caste category for implementing the reservation norm. But, what is the necessity to ask the students to mention it in their answer paper?" said R Ramkumar, a government school teacher and General Secretary of Tamil Nadu Teachers and School Protection Association.
Condemning the practice, Educationist Prince Gajendra Babu said, "We have been objecting to even conducting this kind of test for several years as it does not give proper analysis especially social and cultural background of students. NAS is used to assess knowledge based on what children have learnt. This will not help us analyse the influence of cultural background of students. Meanwhile, it is very pathetic to ask students to fill up their caste on OMR sheets."
When contacted, Chief Education Officer N Geetha said, "As the elementary school students don't know about their caste category such as SC, ST, OBC and General, teachers deputed for supervision of the test have to ask their exact caste and help kids mark the category. We are helpless in this matter as the OMR sheet comes from the centre and not the state government."
Despite the repeated attempts to reach School Education Department Commissioner N Nandakumar and Director Office of CBSE in New Delhi, there was no response.
