GUWAHATI, July 5: The Opposition Congress in Assam on Monday slammed the state government for making ‘confusing’ statements on the ‘objectionable’ clause in the notification regarding the evaluation criteria formulated by two expert committees for the High School Leaving Certificate (Class 10) and Higher Secondary (Class 12) exams, which had to be cancelled because of the critical COVID-19 situation.
Clause five in the notification stated that mark-sheets and certificates of students under the new evaluation formula would not be valid for government jobs. This was announced by the education minister before mediapersons last week.
The clause has drawn flak from several quarters, including the All Assam Students Union.
In a statement, Assam Pradesh Congress Committee said that chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has given a completely different statement from that of the education minister that the mark-sheets will be eligible for all employment, except TET (teacher eligibility test) appointments.
“Such contradictory statements of the chief minister and the education minister have exposed the faulty and dithering education policy of the BJP government which has been frustrating not only for the students, parents and guardians but for the general public as well. The APCC demands that the government should immediately end this stalemate and take quick decisions for the future of these lakhs of students.
The Opposition party said the statements “display the government’s complete lack of sincerity and sensitivity with regard to the future of students.”
“The announcement of making the exam mark-sheet redundant while applying for a government job is totally unjustified. It is not the students’ fault that they could not sit for the exams, so why deprive them?” it added.
“For those students who are career oriented and already gone ahead in their studies in various fields, how practical would it be for them to again go back to sit for a betterment exam?,” the party asked.
The Assam education department had recently announced the evaluation criteria of the exams formulated by two expert committees after the critical COVID situation prompted cancellation of the exams last month.
About seven lakh students were to appear in the exams.
“Initially the education department was hell bent on holding the examination and had announced to this effect since they did not have a robust internal assessment procedure despite widespread protests against holding the examination during COVID times,” the APCC statement said.
“Then giving in to pressure from stakeholders, the education minister said the examination would not be held and instead mark-sheets would be given after internal assessment but with a condition that this mark-sheet can be used only for admission but not for getting any government employment,” it said.