On March 7, the first batch of students from Class XI will take up the board examinations as announced by the Tamil Nadu government in May 2017. The absence of a question paper blueprint for the Class XI exams, as is given for the SSLC and Class XII board examinations, has left students in ambiguity but teachers see positives in the situation.
K. Varsha, a Class XI student at a city school, said that from the beginning of the year, they had mentally prepared themselves to face another board exam after the SSLC. “The teachers too have been giving us revision exams and helping us approach our syllabus in a different way. Since we are confused about how much we are going to be tested in different chapters, we have been trying to study the textbook better,” she said.
While the school education department released the exam and evaluation pattern for Class XI last year, school heads and teachers said that there has been no word yet on a blueprint.
“A blueprint would mean that students will only study certain chapters and mere mugging will not help in them understanding concepts better. With several changes being brought in, including the syllabus revamp, this will ensure that students have a better understanding of basic concepts and hopefully, help them cope better in college in streams such as engineering,” said S. N. Janardhanan, State executive committee member of the School Teachers Federation of India.
G. J. Manohar, Headmaster of the MCC school, said that while passing the Class XI boards will not be an issue for students, they should know the text thoroughly to get high scores.
“The faculty in the school approached the Class XI year as they would for Class XII. The students, however, have been taking time in approaching the exams and aren’t as serious as they would be in Class X or XII,” he said.
Better equipped
The announcement of board exams had garnered support from many academicians, who had felt that it would equip students to face competitive exams such as NEET, which students from Tamil Nadu are preparing to write this year.
“Students are still warming up to the idea of the board exams this year. There has been no proper orientation for students or the teachers this year in many schools on how they can approach the changes. At least next year, the school education department should implement training programs for teachers at the start of the academic year,” said the headmistress of a government school in the city.
She further said that with a revamped syllabus for Class XI coming into effect from the 2018 academic year, they were hoping that the students are motivated better.
