In the middle of strong criticism against implementing the public exams for the elementary school students, the state government of Tamil Nadu has announced that the board exams for the students of classes 5 and 8 would be conducted in their own schools from the current academic year.

The Directorate of Elementary Education has issued a circular on Tuesday in which it has proposed a replacement to the earlier announcement of conducting elementary board exams at the common centers. The circular had notified that all the schools that fall under the Tamil Nadu state syllabus till Class 5 would be hosting as the examination center for the class 5 public exams likewise the schools that follow state syllabus for class 5 as well as for class 8 would be functioning as the examination centers for both the classes. 

Despite the accusations and condemnations from various stakeholders including teachers, parents, and educational activists, the state government of Tamil Nadu had introduced the board exams for classes 5 and 8 in the current academic year. 

The activists had claimed that imposing the board exams for the students who are at the age group between 10 and 13 would highly increase their burden on the academics as they are ought to come through the unprecedented pressure that would, in turn, increase the numbers of school dropouts in the state. Rebutting the accusations and skepticism, the Tamil Nadu government said that the elementary school students would be undergoing the board exams to understand the learning levels and cited that their results won't be published unlike how it has been published for the higher secondary students.

The reports say that class 5 students would be writing public exams in three subjects - English, Tamil, and Mathematics while class 8 students would be appearing for all the five subjects. Earlier, the state government had proposed that the elementary school students would be posted in the common exam centers installed by the government similar to the higher secondary students and after the move was opposed by stating that the students in the rural parts would largely suffer to report to the center daily, the state government has now announced that they can write their board exams at their own schools.