MUMBAI: Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh’s decision to defer the new baseline tests for private and government schools has relieved parents and students.
School principals too have welcomed the decision. Rohan Nathu, a class VI student of St Dominic Savio said, “I am happy and feeling very relaxed as I won’t have to give so many tests.
“Our teachers were confident about this from the beginning. They told us that they would fight it out. So, we did not prepare for the tests.”
His mother, Rajshree Nathu, said, “The decision has lessened our burden. If the decision wouldn’t have come in our favour, we had made plans for filing a writ petition in the Bombay High Court.”
Another parent, Kiran Joshi said,” The decision is in the interests of the students and parents. The government’s policy of implementing the eight baseline tests was taken without seeking the opinion of parents.”
Joshi said his wife was, in fact, planning to quit her job to pay more attention to their son’s study. “The whole family was tense about how would he prepare and score in the tests.”
His son, Harish, a student of St Victoria High School, said, “I wasn’t getting time to play. My parents had also purchased previous years’ exam papers. These tests should have been for only those students who did not perform well in their exams.”
