With less than two months to go for the public examinations, teachers and education officials hope for a bump up in State rankings for Coimbatore district this year.
In 2019, the district ranked fourth in the State in the Class XII public examinations with a pass percentage of 95.01. The district ranked 14th in the Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) examinations for Class X with a pass percentage of 96.44. In Class XI public examinations, Coimbatore district stood third in the State with a pass percentage of 97.67 last year.
T. Arulanandam, State body member of Tamil Nadu High Higher Secondary School Graduate Teachers Association, said there was a good chance for improvement in results in Class XII with the introduction of internal marks and reduction in the evaluation marks. “Earlier, students were writing for 200 marks. Now, for physics, chemistry, botany and zoology, they will be writing for only 70 marks,” he said. This might prove to be an advantage for the students and enable them to score better, according to Mr. Arulanandam, who is also a teacher in a government-aided school in the city.
This year, for the first time, the students of Class V and Class VIII will be facing public examinations. According to an education official, the schools have collected the particulars of students studying in Class V and Class VIII in all the four educational districts (Coimbatore, Perur, S.S. Kulam and Pollachi) and have started uploading those into the Educational Management Information System (EMIS) portal.
Allaying apprehensions expressed by sections of parents and teachers, the official said that Class V and VIII students would not be detained or “failed” based on the performance in these examinations. “There is no pressure among the students and teachers,” the official claimed, adding that these examinations would help students strengthen their basics as they moved on to higher classes.
Echoing a similar opinion, Mr. Arulanandam said that it would help the students have some ‘seriousness’ for Class IX examinations from next year. “This is the first time in nearly 10 years that the Class IX students are required to study the entire syllabus for the exams and they are struggling,” he said, as the students were used to giving only term-wise examinations until last year. However, Mr. Arulanandam said that the Department of School Education must provide adequate clarity on the question paper pattern for the public examinations to allay confusions in the minds of students.
Regarding the uncertainty over the examination centre for Classes V and VIII, the officials said no announcement had been made from the Department of School Education yet. The Class V and VIII students would mostly not be instructed to write the examinations in other schools, the official opined.
Another education official said the schools had been instructed to focus more on Class X to improve the SSLC ranking, with special classes and revision tests being conducted for the students. “They will be writing three revision tests prior to the public exams,” the official said, with each exam testing the students in the complete syllabus.
The Class XI and Class XII students would write two revision tests prior to the public exams. The students of Classes X, XI and XII were also preparing for the practical examinations scheduled to be held on February 3.
P. Ayyanan, Coimbatore Chief Educational Officer, said there would be an improvement in the public examinations for Classes X, XI and XII. “There will be a subject-wise review meeting for the headmasters and teachers to discuss the improvement in the results,” he said.
