CHENNAI: As an after effect for introducing board exam for plus 1, both government and private schools have forced 28,167 students out for flunking the exam in March 2018. In some cases, students who have cleared the exam with just pass marks were also given transfer certificates, sources said.
After the introduction of plus 1 board exams, the enrollment in plus 1 itself faced a steep decline of 61,000 students as compared to the previous year. Particularly, the admissions in Bio-Maths group fallen by 20 per cent.
This comes as a shocker to the officials as they allowed the plus-1 students to write arrears in plus 2. The directorate of government examinations (DGE) has found out when they compared the school wise candidates' list appearing for plus 2 in March 2019 appeared in plus-1.
The DGE has issued a circular on Thursday instructing the schools to include all these students as regular candidates and allow them to write both plus-2 and plus-1 arrears.
"Students will find it difficult to appear for subjects with practical exams in plus 2. To safeguard their interest, the schools should readmit and allow them to write as regular candidates," D. Vasundaradevi, director of government exams said in the circular.
As per the government order, the schools cannot detain the plus 1 students if they fail in the board exams. Like college students, they would be allowed to appear for arrears while writing plus-2. Of 8.47 lakh candidates who have appeared for plus 1 board exam, around 79,000 students could not clear the exams.
"What is more surprising is that even government schools also gave transfer certificates to the students who failed in the exam. Of 28,000 students, more than 5,000 students were from government schools," sources said.
"A majority of the students who flunked the exam are from science groups. Usually, the directorate will not allow private candidates for science stream," sources added.
Though 91 per cent of students cleared the first board exams for plus-1 in March 2018, only 3.3 per cent students alone were able to score above 80 per cent in the exams and less than one per cent scored above 90 per cent marks.
