Scrapping of Tenth Board Exams Still under Debate: PM

With controversy over a move to scrapping class 10th board examinations continuing, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said that it is an experiment that is still being debated and that he felt that no decision should be taken in a hurry.

“We are still debating on this issue. This is an experiment. We should not take a decision in haste,” Singh told a group of children during an interaction on the occasion of Children’s Day.

He was speaking in response to a query if students are not being made weak by the decision to scrap the tenth board examination.

“You are shielding them from difficulties,” a student asked.

In September, government had announced abolition of compulsory CBSE board exams for class tenth from the next academic year saying that grading system would take its place.

In response to another query as to how education was getting costlier by the day, the prime minister said that it is so only in private schools. In government schools, it was ensured that education did not finish up as a privilege for only the rich.

On what government was doing for children who are not in schools and are living on roads and begging, Singh said, “it pains me a lot. We are trying to educate all children under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.”