The State government has issued a circular that the first-term (Onam) examination of Plus Two higher secondary students should be conducted from September 4 to 12 by preparing the question papers at the school level.
Schools in the disaster-hit area of Wayanad district need not conduct the first-term examinations. There will be no Onam examinations for Plus One higher secondary students in the State either.
The circular has been issued amid demands that question papers for higher secondary students be prepared at the government level as was being done for classes I to X.
Lobby
Handing over preparation of question papers to schools would pave the way for the private question paper lobby to boost their business.
Teachers’ organisations, including the All Kerala School Teachers’ Union, argued that providing a uniform question paper for the first-term examinations will be helpful for Plus Two students who were to appear for public examinations later in the year.
The department, the Federation of Higher Secondary Teachers’ Associations said, knew that the first-term examinations would have to be held ahead of Onam and require a pool of questions to be prepared for the Plus Two classes. Yet, it decided to pass on the responsibility of question paper preparation to schools this late. The schools, in turn, would pass on the financial burden of taking photocopies of question papers to students.
Since 2017
Centralised question papers were being provided to higher secondary students since 2017. The department could have entrusted the question paper preparation to teachers’ organisations too as had been done before, instead of facilitating the question paper lobby and private sector, the federation alleged.
It demanded that the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) prepare the question papers and that the department print and distribute them to schools.
