Karnataka govt's decision to hold public exams for 5th and 8th standards opposed

Bengaluru: After a row over saffronisation of syllabus, inclusion and deletion of lessons during the syllabus review, Karnataka education department's decision to conduct public exams for Classes 5 and 8 has triggered a fresh controversy in the state.

A section of parents and student organisations have objected to the decision and expressed their fears of creating a discriminatory situation for the students.

Karnataka Pradesha Samanya Naagarikara Dhvani Vedike President S. Lakshminarayana has attacked Education Minister B.C. Nagesh over the decision. This is a decision taken at the fag end of the academic year with discretion, he said on Friday.

He further stated that this move is against the National Education Policy (NEP). This created panic among crores of parents and students. The decision must be reversed, he demanded.

The Karnataka Education department is conducting public exams for students who are studying state syllabus. The public exams are not conducted for students who are studying in CBSE schools. The exams are also not conducted in schools run by the central government. The parents are claiming that it amounts to discrimination.

The notification for conducting exams was released on December 12. Questions are raised on how the students can prepare for public exams in two months. Most of the parents who send their wards to government schools do not have any information about the development, it is claimed.

Lakshminarayana maintained that the minister Nagesh had taken the decision only to show off during the election time. Minister Nagesh had clarified that public exams for 5th and 8th class students are conducted to improve children's learning capacity.

The order in this regard stated that the decision was being made as it was getting difficult to judge the overall performance of the students under the ongoing system of Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) for students studying in classes 1 and 9.

Minister Nagesh had stated that it had been observed that children are scared while writing SSLC (class 10) exams as they lack confidence and are not competent. Under the new system, children will write exams like those who appear for exams under CBSE and ICSE syllabus.

The officials maintain that the exams for students of class 5 and 8 will be like SSLC board exams but they won't be so difficult. It has been decided that no student should fail.