The government on Wednesday said it has asked the Central Board of Secondary Education to exempt students of class eight and their juniors from taking examinations.

The board has allowed this exemption till class three.

"I am against this system of examination... I have asked the CBSE to waive examinations for children till class eight. It has waived these for children up to class three but I think at least till class five there should be no examination for children," Union Human Resources Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi said in the Rajya Sabha.

Questioning the education system which labels children as 'pass' or 'fail' on the basis of whether they clear exams or not, Joshi said India should be known as a nation of successful people and tags such as 'fail' should be removed from the vocabulary.

He was replying to a debate on the National Charter for Children, which envisages provision of free and compulsory education to all children between six and 14 years, banning all forms of child labour and protecting the girl child.

Warning the nation against keeping its children uneducated, under-developed or undernourished, the minister said such nations would not survive in the long run.