Following an analysis of the performance of Class XII students in the recent half-yearly examinations, officials in the School Education Department here have swung into action to intensify coaching, since the children have not fared well not just in main subjects such as mathematics, physics and chemistry but also in language papers.
“While it is common for students to falter in English because most of the questions are competence-based, it is an unexpected trend that several students have not fared well in Tamil,” said Chief Educational Officer (CEO) C. Amuthavalli.
“Even top scorers have scored poor marks in Tamil. This is not because the subject is difficult but because most of the students did not take the paper seriously. They concentrated only on major subjects and did not do any in-depth study of Tamil subject,” she told The Hindu on Wednesday.
FailuresAmong the subjects that have a large number of failures are physics, chemistry, mathematics, Tamil, English, accountancy, economics and commerce.
Officials in the School Education Department had already identified the difficult sections in textbooks and prepared a plan of action to provide adequate attention to the portions identified as critical from February, the CEO said.
TrainingTeachers from various government schools would attend a one-day training programme in the first week of February, in which experts would brief them on the specific areas they need to concentrate, she added.
The department has so far identified 15 government schools in the three educational districts of Madurai, Melur and Usilampatti as low-performing schools.
“Besides coaching, motivational programmes will also be organised in the 15 schools to enable them perform better in the final examination.”
Special attentionIn all the other schools, special attention will be provided to both low scorers in order to help them perform better and high scorers to secure State ranks.
As per data, only 69.93 per cent of the students in Madurai educational district have passed all the subjects in Class XII.
During the last academic year, the overall pass percentage in the board examination in the district was 93.77 per cent.
“The half-yearly results may not be an indicator of what to expect in the final examination. Actual coaching begins only henceforth and the half-yearly examination is the first test the students write on the entire portion. The schools as well as the students analyse the performance and prepare accordingly,” said the Madurai District Educational Officer,K.Jaya Meena Devi.
