Class X Tamil Nadu State Board students who opt for their mother tongue along with Tamil as the main language will have to now write the public exam for 600 marks. The school education department issued a government order in this regard on Friday, February 16, as stated in a report by The New Indian Express.
As per the order, students who opt for other languages as optional subjects along with Tamil language for Class X public exam will have to write six subjects for a total of 600 marks. Other students will write the exam for subjects like Tamil, English, Mathematics, Science and Social Science and their total marks will remain 500. The new system will be implemented from 2024-25 academic year.
According to school education officials, currently, exams are being conducted for non-Tamil language subjects such as Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu, Urdu and Arabic, but marks in these subjects are not taken into account for deciding if a candidate has passed the exam or not. However, after the implementation of the new rule, such students must secure at least 35 marks to pass the optional subject.
When asked whether the disparity in the total marks won’t create confusion in the Class X Board exams, Director of School Education, G Arivoli, said, "There will be no problem at all in the implementation of the new system. Students who will write the Board examination for five subjects will be scored for 500 marks while those who opt for six subjects will write for a total 600 marks. The difference in total marks is not going to affect the marks of the students in any way."
"On average, over nine lakh students appear for Class X Board exam every year. Of them, the number of minority linguistic students who choose optional language subjects is only 4,000 to 5,000," Arivoli said.
School Education Department officials said they had to introduce the new system after a few minority linguistic institutions moved the Supreme Court raising concerns that students whose mother tongue is not Tamil must be given the option to study their language subject.
"The court, in its order, had observed that while proficiency in Tamil and English language is a must, students must be incentivised to have similar proficiency in their mother tongue, too, and it should be included as an optional subject. Proficiency in the mother tongue is necessary for basic educational purposes. Hence, we followed the instructions," said an official from the School Education Department.
Teachers, parents, and students of linguistic minority schools welcomed the move. "As minority languages were not given priority in many government schools, teacher posts in minority languages remained vacant. Things will change now," said KR Nandakumar, General Secretary, Tamil Nadu Matriculation and CBSE Schools Association.
"Our students now can improve their overall marks by securing good marks in Arabic," said the principal of a minority linguistic school.
