‘Withdraw proposal to conduct public exam for Classes 5, 8 in Karnataka’: AIDSO

NEW DELHI: Opposing the Karnataka government’s proposal to conduct public exams for Classes 5 and 8 students, the All India Democratic Students' Organisation (AIDSO) Karnataka state secretary said that the move will create undue mental stress on students.

“The Karnataka state government has proposed to conduct a public examination for Class 5 and 8 students. The education minister is saying that this examination is being conducted with the aim of maintaining the quality education. The government is shirking from its responsibility by placing the blame on teachers for the decline in standards,” the state secretary of AIDSO Ajay Kamath issued a statement.

Saying that the “Government policies are the reason for the decline in standards”, Kamath said, “The pass-fail system has already been abandoned and the no detention policy has been implemented, which is the cause of decline in the standard and quality of education. AIDSO has been opposing this unscientific policy since the day it was implemented.”

Kamath further pointed out that “there is no adequate number of teachers in the schools, no proper buildings, no basic facilities like toilets and drinking water.”

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Claiming that there are 4,500 single-teacher schools, he said, “Many schools have no teachers at all. In addition, the government assigns many non-academic tasks to teachers. The government is talking about public examination without fulfilling its minimum responsibility of providing adequate facilities and creating a conducive environment for quality education in schools.”

Move to conduct public examinations for Classes 5 and 8 is the most obvious imposition of National Education Policy (NEP-2020), he added. The proposal will encourage coaching culture and also make education expensive, he claimed.

AIDSO Karnataka State Committee demanded the government to immediately withdraw the proposal of conducting public examination and implement the pass-fail system to ensure the quality of education and strengthen the public education system by fulfilling other basic requirements including recruitment of teachers and basic infrastructures for schools.