Board Exams and Election to Get Postponed?
Posted on: 11/Dec/2015 4:33:26 PM
Following incessant rainfall in Chennai and across Tamil Nadu, there arises a question if the legislative council election and board exams for school students will get postponed.
Schools are shut for more than 30 days due to inundated rainfall in Chennai, Kanchipuram, Thiruvallur, Cuddalore and other districts. The monsoon season is not over yet and will continue till end of December. Hence, it is likely that schools may have to be shut for many days further.
It is mandatory for primary and middle schools to function for 220 days in a year and higher secondary schools must function for a minimum of 200 days in a year. If holidays are declared unexpectedly, it will be compensated with Saturdays.
Owing to heavy showers, half yearly exams that were scheduled for 7th of this month are postponed to January. If it happens so, there will be just two months left for the board exam. Hence, there are suggestions that recommend omitting half yearly exams and conduct board exams straight away. Though the idea is received well by school teachers, there are suggestions that skipping half yearly exam may affect 10th and 12th standard students.
Speaking about this, V. Manivasagan from government higher secondary school said there are lesser number of working days in school due to many holidays declared for heavy showers. Hence we shall skip half yearly exams and conduct the final exam directly. Speaking about the same, educationalist S.S. Rajagopalan said there is no need for skipping half yearly exam in all districts and that it is enough if we do so in select districts that got affected by rain showers.
If half yearly exams are skipped and final exams are conducted directly, students may find it difficult, said deputy director of primary education, retired, Siva Tamilmani. He adds that the best idea is to postpone half yearly exams.
Set apart the board exams for school children. We also have election for next year. We need to conduct the board exam before May 2016 and before this all necessary arrangements for the board exam should be taken.
Appointing officials at polling booths, training them, identifying panicking poll booths, distribution of poll slips, etc are some of the preparation works to be done for election. Officials from election commission, revenue personnel and teachers will be involved in these activities. Presently, changes and modifications in voters list are being done. These works have got slowed down at places that are affected by flood. This will be followed by issuing voters list on 20th of January which was earlier scheduled for 5th of January.
The revenue officials are presently involved in estimating the damage caused by rain showers. Hence, there arises a question if there will be postponement of election due to delay in preparing for election.
One of the former election commissioners says election will usually take place in May and the announcement for the same will be rolled out in February or initial days of March. This will be followed by various other works which will involve teachers and revenue officials accounting to over 2.5 lakh. We are left with five months for election. We shall start with works for election if we complete flood relief works in another one month. The new government should form within the stipulated time. The election commission will take necessary steps to ensure the same.
