N. Moses and K. Latha, students of the Corporation School in Alwarpet, will be the first in their family to appear for the Class XII board examination. Ask them if they are anxious and both say that they’ve set their eyes only on scoring centums.
They are among the 53,357 students from the city who will be appearing in the Plus Two examination set to begin on March 3.
As both private schools and the education department are working to keep up and increase last year’s overall pass percentage of 88.1, students have their noses dug deep into their textbooks and model question papers. Last year, Chennai’s overall pass percentage was 91.82 per cent and it ranked 12th among the districts.
While study holidays for students have begun in most private schools, students studying in Chennai Corporation schools continue to come to school for special classes like every year in the run-up to the examinations.
“We have a test each day in one subject. As an encouragement, our headmaster even gives us small gifts like a pen. It is quite motivating,” said Latha. Moses said that they had their teachers’ numbers and called them whenever they had a doubt.
“Mathematics and English is where students mostly need help. We have also identified schools that got a low pass percentage last year and are giving them special attention” a Corporation official said.
P. Abdul Rasheed, Headmaster, Corporation School, Alwarpet, said that in addition to efforts by the Corporation including giving sundal to students in the evening, and additional reference material, the school had arranged for lunch for its students, and biscuits for those staying back for special classes. A donor has contributed for this. “We want to perform better than last year,” he said.
Kalpalatha Mohan, principal, Sri Sankara Vidyashramam Matriculation Higher Secondary School, said that even though study holidays have begun, the school is open for those who want to come and work out model question papers. “Our teachers are here. Any student can walk in and attempt a question paper, and the teachers will correct it for them. Students mostly work out mathematics problems,” she said.
