Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Convicts take ESLC exam in prison

— Photo: Special Arrangement

road to REFORm: Director General of Prisons R.Natraj at an examination hall at the Puzhal Central prison in Chennai on Monday.

CHENNAI: It was perhaps the most guarded examination centre known to invigilators in Tamil Nadu.

Surrounded by a high-rise compound wall with electric fence, armed security personnel and surveillance cameras, candidates took a three-hour examination.

For the first time, the Department of School Education agreed to conduct the Elementary School Leaving Certificate (ESLC) public examination in central prisons for the benefit of inmates. About 80 convicts and remand prisoners, including women, appeared for the exam with hall tickets at the Puzhal, Vellore and Coimbatore central prisons on Monday.

While 47 prisoners took the examination in Coimbatore, 11 women were among the 26 inmates who appeared in Chennai. “This included life convict Poongothai (55) and Sivan Indrani (52), an undertrial. Earlier, candidates were going to designated examination centres with police escort. We proposed to have central prisons as centres since it would enthuse the inmates to write,” Director-General of Prisons, R. Natraj, said.

The five-day examinations commenced with Tamil subject on Monday.

“This is part of the Adult and Continuing Education programme. Schools have been established in all the prisons where basic education is provided. Efforts are on to conduct all types of examinations on the prison campus,” Mr Natraj added.

As part of the welfare measures, the Prison Department, in association with a couple of voluntary organisations, issued education grant to children of prisoners released after their term of sentence.

The beneficiaries included wards of the victims of crime.

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