28 teens can’t write 10th Board in Kochi as unaffiliated school’s ‘arrangement’ fails

Though the Arooja Little Star School has CBSE affiliation only till Class 8, they have been admitting students upto Class 10 for many years now.

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When thousands of class 10 students affiliated to Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) in Kerala, will write their board exams on Monday, 28 students of a Kochi school will be looking at their counterparts without writing the examination despite being fully prepared for it. The students, who are studying in the Arooja Little Star School at Moolamkuzhy near Thoppumpady in Kochi, will not be able to write the Class 10 exam as the school failed to register the names of the students with the CBSE.

Though the Arooja Little Star School has CBSE affiliation only till class eight, they have been admitting students upto Class 10 for many years now. According to parents, the school authorities used to register the Class 10 students under other schools with CBSE affiliation to write the board exam, until last year. But this year, not only did the school fail to make such an arrangement, they also hid the issue from parents, students and teachers.

The students, according to parents, are upset on hearing the news. “What are our children supposed to do? Exams are starting on Monday, our kids have studied everything. They are shattered knowing that they won’t be able to write the examinations. We were told about this issue, that the children will not be able to write the examination, on Wednesday. We knew that the school did not have affiliation for Class 10, but for the past many years, on arrangement with other schools with affiliation, the students were made to write board exams from other schools. Now, after taking even the examination fees from the students, the management is saying that the arrangement they made with a school did not work out. Even my elder son passed out from here with good marks, so we did not anticipate any complication,” says Philip Alfred, a parent.

The parents and students are now in a fix. “Usually one registers for the Class 10 exam in CBSE while studying in Class 9 itself. In that case, the children will lose two years now. We spoke to Ernakulam District Collector, City Police Commissioner and even V Muraleedharan, Minister of State for External Affairs. But no one has given us any clear assurance that this issue can be fixed. It is a matter of the future of 28 students,” says Philip.

The parents also state that the school has said that they will arrange admission for the students next year in another school by funding their studies. “But what can compensate for the lost precious time of the students?” Philip asks.

Though TNM contacted the school principal for a reaction, she was not available.

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