Bengaluru: In a surprise move, Primary and Secondary Education Minister S Suresh Kumar said on Friday that the department is set to reintroduce public exams for Class 7 students from the current academic year itself. While it may come as a shocker for students and parents, the only relief may be that candidates will not be failed this year.

Announcing this, Suresh Kumar said, “Public exams will be introduced from this academic year itself. It will help children fare well in the SSLC exams.” 

Earlier, the state was mulling over the idea of introducing a board-level examination either at Class 5 or Class 8, or both. 

According to the minister, the board exam system which was in place till some years ago, will in fact help improve SSLC pass percentage. This system is also part of the National Education Policy recommendations and was recently introduced in Tamil Nadu too.

Primary and Secondary Education Minister S Suresh Kumar said, “The new National Education Policy recommends public exams for these grades. The students should develop the confidence to face the exams.” While a technical committee will be set up to ensure that the process is a smooth affair, as per the plans, the SSLC board will have the responsibility of preparing the question papers and answer keys and the papers will be evaluated at the district level.

However, this has come in for mix reactions from teachers and parents. While some feel that the new system will lessen the burden on students while facing the Class 10 exams, there were a few who were not happy with the sudden move.

D Shashikumar, general secretary, Associated Managements of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka, called it a “bad idea”. “We had requested that Class 5 and Class 8 students face board exams and that the ‘no detention policy’ should be scrapped. Students of Class 5 are in primary school and those in Class 8 are in higher primary school, so they are psychologically more prepared to write board exams whereas Class 7 is right in the middle,” he told The New Indian Express.

The practice of conducting public exams for Class 7 was scrapped in 2012. While some parents have hailed the new move, several parents have also objected to it. Udaykumar S, parent of a Class 7 student, said the sudden move will create panic amongst children. “Students have only 3-4 months left to prepare for the exam. Such things need to be planned ahead of the academic year and not brought in suddenly.”

Some others felt, “Board exams are a necessity since students will get an idea of what public examinations are and they will not panic in the Class 10 exams since they have faced it already. It will add to the quality in education.”