Class 11 board exams likely to get cancelled

The Tamil Nadu government is likely to scrap the board exams for Class 11, which was introduced in 2017-18.

A senior official from the School Education Department seeking anonymity said it was found that students were under severe stress for having to appear for board exams continuously for three years starting from Class 10. Pointing out that the Class 11 board exams were introduced since many private schools were not concentrating on the syllabus, he said, “Many self-financing institutions were also teaching Class 12 subjects in the eleventh standard itself to improve the results.”

He also said that students appearing for the three board exams do not have time to prepare themselves for competitive exams. However, the official stated that the Class 11 decision was yet to be made final. For the first time, more than 7 lakh Class 11 students appeared for board exams in 2018-19 with the new syllabus. In addition, the total marks were also reduced from 1,200 to 600. Likewise, an internal assessment carrying 10 marks was introduced. In 2020, the exams could not be conducted due to the pandemic. Moreover, Class 11 marks are not considered during admission for higher education.

Tamil Nadu Teachers’ Association president P K Ilamaran said that once again due to competition, many private schools will ignore Class 11 and only concentrate on Plus-Two subjects to obtain good results if the government cancels board exams for Plus-one students.

KR Nandhakumar, general secretary, Tamil Nadu Private Nursery, Primary, Matriculation, Higher Secondary, and CBSE Schools Association, said the move to scrap Class 11 board exams would be wrong. He said even in government schools, the students’ learning approach in Class 11 will be casual, hampering higher studies.