Class IX, the real test for students

DoE data shows around 50% clear exam

For the past three academic sessions, half of all Delhi government school students who appeared for the Class IX exam have failed, according to a Right To Information (RTI) reply from the Directorate of Education (DoE).

Advocate Ashok Aggarwal had filed an RTI query on June 2, to which a reply was given on Wednesday by the Examination Cell of the DoE.

It said that 2.46 lakh students appeared for the Class IX exam in 2014-15 and 1.27 lakh cleared it. In 2015-16, 2.69 lakh students appeared out of which 1.36 lakh passed. In 2016-17, 1.27 lakh of the 2.44 lakh students who appeared for the Class IX exam passed.

‘Real state of affairs’

The pass percentage for Class XI, however, increased in the same period — though the number of students who took the exam decreased — as per the RTI reply. In 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17, 62%, 72% and 73% of students respectively passed the Class XI exams in government schools.

Mr. Aggarwal, who heads the All India Parents Association, said that the RTI reply had raised questions about the quality of education in government schools. “The government touted its achievements in the Class XII and Class X Central Board of Secondary Education exams, but the Class IX results show the real state of government schools,” he said.

When the CBSE recently released the Class X and Class XII results, it showed that Delhi government schools had done better than private schools. For Class XII, the CBSE results showed that 88.36% of government school students and 84.20% of private school students had cleared the exam. When the same batch was in Class XI in 2015-16, the pass percentage was 72.73, as a result a large number of students did not go on to Class XII.

Similarly, while the total pass percentage for Delhi in the CBSE Class X exam was 78.1 this year, the number of Delhi government students who passed the exam was 92.44%, as per Education Minister Manish Sisodia. But, the RTI reply revealed that when the same batch was in Class IX, the pass percentage was 50.78, leading to the number of students going on to Class X getting cut by half.

Since students can’t be detained till Class IX, as per the Right to Education Act, 2009, the number of students who are unable to pass the grade is high. Recognising this, the government had in 2016 initiated ‘Chunauti 2018’ to improve quality of education till Class IX.