Plus One higher secondary students staged a protest outside the Secretariat on Monday demanding their public examinations next month be postponed.
The Plus One examinations will begin on June 13 and conclude on June 30. Ahead of the public examinations, students will appear for the model examinations from June 2 to 7.
A collective of students came together outside the Secretariat alleging that they had not got enough time to prepare for the public examinations. Portions that would normally be taught over nine to ten months had been crammed into four months of physical classes. Even this was not continuous, owing to vacations and the third wave of COVID-19 when again classes switched to online mode.
A Plus One student who did not wish to be identified said online classes were not very effective as many students faced connectivity issues or did not attend them, and ultimately they had asked for the portions to be taught yet again in school. Some schools had finished the Plus One portions, but students remained apprehensive about how much they had really understood. Some other institutions were organising online classes even at this juncture in a rush to finish portions, the student said.
No focus area had been demarcated for the examinations, they said, seeking more preparation time.
Students even from districts such as Kollam and Alappuzha turned up for the protest, held under the umbrella of an informal collective. They said a similar protest held in Palakkad recently had prompted them to communicate their concerns to the authorities.
Though Minister for General Education V. Sivankutty frowned upon the protest pointing out that the exam dates had been announced well in advance, and the government would not encourage such actions, the students said they later met the Minister’s personal staff who assured them that more choices would be be available throughout the question paper, and not just within sections.
Though they still have concerns they had decided to call of the protest scheduled for Tuesday, the students said.
