In order to stem the declining the pass percentage of SSLC students, the Education Department has decided to entrust the responsibility of improving the performance of each school to senior-level officials.
Their task will be to oversee the activity in one of the 45 government or aided schools with low pass percentage and ensure improvement in the SSLC examination in 2014. The district – known as land of literate people – has slipped to 26th in the State in the SSLC pass percentage this year from 8th last year. Only 78.78 per cent of students cleared the 10th standard examination whereas students in Udupi district recorded pass percentage of 88 per cent.
Following a meeting with principals from different schools, the department made a list of 45 schools where the pass percentage had been less than 60 per cent. Deputy Director of Public Instruction Moses Jayashekar, District Coordinator of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan N. Shivaprakash and 43 other officials have been assigned one school each where they have to work towards improving the performance of students.
According to a circular issued on June 11, each officer has to visit the school once every month and observe standard of teaching, quality of evaluation and question papers, and look into problems of students in understanding the subject and also the way special classes for academically poor students are conducted. The official will discuss with teachers and chalk out plans to improve the performance of children. “We will stick to basics to ensure our students do better in the Class 10 examination,” said Mr. Jayashekar.
Common paper
The department this year will take the responsibility of setting common question papers for unit tests for Class 10 students in all schools where medium of instruction is Kannada. This, Mr. Jayashekar said, was to make teachers complete portions within the prescribed timeframe. Mr. Jayashekar said they have addressed the grievances of teachers and reduced the number of training sessions this year.
