Coronavirus: Tamil Nadu cancels class 10 exams; promotes all 9 lakh students

After dithering for over two months and postponing the exam dates twice, the Tamil Nadu government on Tuesday finally scrapped 10th standard board exam for the 2019-2020 academic year by announcing all students will be promoted automatically to the next class.

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The government also cancelled board exams for 11th standard, while making it clear that it will conduct exams for 12th standard students who could not attend the exams on March 24 and 26 at a later date.

The 10th standard exams were originally scheduled to be held from March 27 but were cancelled due to the lockdown and the government announced in May that the exams will be conducted from June 1. However, after outrage from parents and political parties, it further postponed the date to June 15, which stand cancelled now. Over nine lakh students had registered to appear for 10th standard exams.

Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami made the announcement in a televised address after discussions with School Education Minister K A Sengottaiyan and senior government officials.

He said the decision to scrap the 10th standard board examinations was taken due to an exponential increase in the number of people testing positive for novel coronavirus in Chennai and elsewhere in the state every day.

“Experts say the spread of the virus may not be brought under control in a short span of time and hence heeding to requests from parents and to protect the students from coronavirus, the government has decided to scrap 10th standard board exams that were to begin on June 15,” Palaniswami said.

Eighty percent of the marks for 10th standard students will be awarded based on their performance in quarterly and half-yearly exams, while the remaining 20 percent marks will be based on their school attendance. He also announced that the exams for a few subjects for 11th standard that were postponed due to the lockdown also stand cancelled.

The announcement is a clear volte-face by the Chief Minister, who had maintained in April and May that conducting 10th standard board exams was “imperative” and that these exams cannot be cancelled.

The government’s decision came a day after the Madras High Court asked the state to consider whether it can postpone the exams due to the situation arising out of the COVID-19 spread. During the hearing on Monday, the government had defended its move and even went a step ahead to say this was the right time to conduct the exams citing experts’ report that the COVID-19 cases in Tamil Nadu could increase in the coming months.

The move to conduct 10th standard exams became a major political issue in Tamil Nadu since March with principal opposition, DMK, taking the lead in calling for its scraping. The ruling AIADMK’s ally, PMK, also took on the government on this issue by asking it not to conduct the exams from June 15.

Predictably, the DMK took credit for the announcement saying the government caved in after the Opposition party declared a protest on Wednesday against the conduct of the exams. “It is a victory for the DMK, which has been at the forefront asking for the cancellation of the exams. Though the decision has come late, it is a good one,” DMK MLA and former School Education Minister ‘Thangam’ Thennarasu said.