In order to clamp down on schools deliberately failing their Class IX students to get 100 per cent pass results in the Class X board exams, the State education department has asked schools to ensure that all Class IX students reach Class X.
Schools have also been asked to conduct an additional exam in the first week of June for students who fail Class IX so that they don’t miss out on an academic year. However, if the student fails again, then he or she should be declared as failed and made to repeat Class IX.
In a government resolution (GR), the State government also warned schools against holding back students in Class IX. Apart from complaints from the teaching community during meetings, the government also found that a large number of Class IX students were not reaching Class X in some schools.
It also found that a good number of such Class IX dropouts managed to pass the board exams by appearing privately. In 2014-15, about 2.45 lakh students had failed Class IX, and nearly 1.38 lakh failed Class X.
Mahesh Palkar, Education Officer, BMC, who oversees government and private schools, said, “This concept has been introduced to reduce dropout rates. It was found that students generally opt out at this age and stage, and the government felt they need to be retained.”
An estimated 20 lakh students enrol every year in Class I, but only about 15 lakh appeared for the Class X exams held by all boards in 2014-15. This roughly translates into a 22.51-per cent dropout rate. .
The government said many schools deliberately fail students to get perfect pass results in Class X. The GR read: “With the State having a policy to not fail students up till Class VIII, this has resulted in weak students reaching right till Class IX without any problem and then end up failing the class. Some schools were found to deliberately fail students as they did not have the required division strength in Class X. It also emerged from our discussions with teachers that many schools indulged in malpractices in Class IX.
Schools have also been asked to conduct a test for their Class IX and X students after the Diwali vacation to assess their weak areas. However, some like Ujwala Zara, principal, Seth HS High School and Junior College, felt such measures might lead to students being more casual about exams.
“Students, at times, do become very casual attitude about exams since they feel they cannot fail till Class VIII. There are times when parents take their students away to their hometowns in April before the exams, since they don’t hold them in much importance. With such measures, students might just get more casual. Government measures get defeated because of the students’ attitude.”
The writer is a freelance journalist
