Final call by CM on State board exams today: Minister

Schools, particularly in Doveton and Chetpet areas, have increased the annual fees and the charges for textbooks have been increased by 10 times, said the petition of Parent-Teachers Association

CHENNAI: With the Centre cancelling the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Class 12 board exams, the Tamil Nadu government will convene a crucial meeting on Wednesday to announce its decision on conducting Class 12 State boards.

Earlier in the day, School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi had convened a meeting with Chief Minister M K Stalin, besides the Education Department authorities, to discuss the exam scenario.

Stating that the State government was keen on organising only physical exams for Class 12 students, a senior official from the School Education Department said the meeting will go through the Centre’s full report on the decision to cancel the exams.

“At present, we got only basic information that the CBSE Class 12 exams were cancelled, and the Centre justified it based on students’ safety. We expect to get a detailed report from the Ministry of Education tomorrow (Wednesday) explaining the reasons for cancelling the exams and method of calculating marks for the students,” the official said.

Pointing out that the State might also follow the Union government’s decision, he said, “The only problem is if the State goes ahead and cancels the exam, calculation of marks would be difficult unlike their CBSE counterparts, who had online classes and several revision tests from which the marks could be derived”.

Members of the Parent-Teacher Association and social activists have petitioned the office of Chief Minister MK Stalin seeking action against private school authorities in Chennai for violating the orders of the Madras High Court that has prescribed the regulated fee to be collected during the lockdown.

The petitioners have stated that the schools have increased the annual fees and are collecting charges for air-conditioned classrooms that no longer exist due to coronavirus lockdown. Building development fees, textbook charges running into several thousand rupees are the other new categories taken up by the schools, the petition said.

Tamil Nadu Congress Trade Union state president N Bhuvaneswari Nanjappan in her petition to the CM cell said that the schools, particularly in Doveton and Chetpet areas, have increased the annual fees and the charges for textbooks have been exorbitantly increased by 10 times. The Supreme Court in its recent direction stated that the educational institutions should reduce their fees as there is no consumption of electricity, water and other utility charges during the online classes, but the schools have neither followed the Supreme Court directions or the Madras High Court order in letter and spirit.

“Last year the Madras

High Court came to the rescue of parents unable to pay the fees and passed an interim order under which a parent can pay only 75 per cent of the annual fee and again they can pay it in two instalments, but this year the schools have started asking for the full term fee and several schools have silently increased the annual fee,” said social activist V Sathiabalan.

The School Education Department should conduct an enquiry with the parents who have paid the fees and such cases should be directed to District Educational Officers (DEOs) and Chief Educational Officers (CEOs) for further action, Sathiabalan said. If the parents are hesitant to file a complaint they should reach out to the local MLAs seeking their intervention, Sathiabalan opined.

“In several cases majority of the parents pay the full fees with a grudge and do not raise the complaint, this also affects the children of parents who have lost their livelihood due to COVID,” rued a parent who is also a member of Parent Teacher Association in Pursawalkam.

When contacted, a government official said last year the court passed interim orders and the fee was regularised. This year again the matter has mushroomed now and if there are specific complaints necessary action will be taken, the official said adding that the directions issued by the Court was complied with last year.