New Delhi, Nov. 14 The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, on Saturday said the decision to abolish or not to abolish the 10th board exam would not be taken in haste.

Dr. Singh's statement came during his interaction with schoolchildren who asked whether children are not being made weak by the decision to scrap the tenth board examination.

"You are shielding them from difficulties," a student asked.

"We are still debating on this issue. This is an experiment. We should not take a decision in haste", Singh told a group a children during an interaction on the occasion of Children's Day.

In September, the Centre had announced abolition of compulsory CBSE board exams for class X from next academic year (2010-11) and introduction of grading system from current year.

Answering another question, why education was getting costlier by the day, Singh said this was so only in private schools.

In government schools, every effort was being made to ensure that education did not become a privilege for only the rich.

On what government was doing for children who are not in schools and are living on roads and begging, he said: "It pains me a lot.

We are trying to educate all children under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan." (ANI)