With board exams round the corner, school education minister N.R.Sivapathy said Tuesday officials of the department and government teachers should not take leave for the next couple of months.

They must focus energies on improving student performance and ensuring smooth conduct of examinations, he said at a meeting with district education officers (DEOs) on DPI campus in Chennai.

“You must improve on last year’s results. Your goal must be to score 100 per cent pass. You cannot take leave till exams are over. You must frequently visit schools under your control and hold review meetings to monitor work of teachers,” he told DEOs.

The minister promised “attractive prizes” for officials achieving centum results.

Stressing the need to ensure smooth conduct of exams, he said proper seating arrangements should be made for students. “They should not be made to sit outside, on the floor. You should not resort to temporary arrangements,“ Mr Sivapathy said. Recalling that some unpleasant incidents had occurred during exams last year, he said more flying squads should be deployed this time.

About recruiting parttime teachers through parent-teacher associations, the minister said it would be better if bachelors were avoided. While school education minister N.R. Sivapathy has instructed the district education officers and teachers not to go on leave, teachers say they never take leave unnecessarily.

“Practical examinations for Plus-2 are going on and we've revision tests for Class 10 students. No teacher takes leave unnecessarily. It's crucial time for students and we teachers have to be with students,“ said a government schoolteacher.

The teacher said that there were teachers who go on leave during exam time. “Some teachers can't stand continuously for three hours.

Though exam is for two-and-half hours, we reach the centre an hour earlier and stay another one hour after the exam. So we end up standing for five hours. Some teachers do take leave due to health issue,“ the teacher said.

-dc chn