The poor performance in the Class X Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) examinations by students of the Delhi government’s correspondence education programme has set off a debate on whether the Patrachar Vidyalaya scheme is working.
Some students who failed the examinations are blaming the government for the result, saying that the decision to transfer them from mainstream schools to correspondence last year has had an impact on their performance.
A student of the Patrachar scheme, Iqra, said she failed in one subject - science - in the CBSE Class X examinations, the results of which were announced on June 3.
“Till Class IX, I used to attend regular school. Then I failed and was shifted to open school [Patrachar]. Like me, there are many students who failed only once and were moved to open school. We demand that we be allowed to attend regular school in Class XI,” she said.
According to advocate and activist Ashok Aggarwal, there are thousands of students like Iqra who have been affected by the government’s decision to move them to Patrachar.
‘Forced to join scheme’
“The push-out policy of the Arvind Kejriwal government has led to the removal of over 1 lakh Class IX students in 2015-2016 from the mainstream education system. About 62,000 were forced to join the Patrachar scheme, and the rest dropped out,” said Mr. Aggarwal.
He added that only 1,250 of these students passed the Class X examinations and that the remaining were left in the lurch. He said many students and parents would be raising their concerns at a protest at Jantar Mantar on Sunday.
‘Opportunity unutilised’
Meanwhile, the Aam Aadmi Party government said the students who joined the Patrachar scheme last year had been given more opportunities than before. Atishi Marlena, an advisor to the government on education, said the Patrachar students who appeared for the CBSE Class X examinations would have dropped out altogether if not for the scheme. She said many of the students who joined the Patrachar programme had previously failed twice or more.
“We gave them a chance to remain in the system. We gave them access to regular classes and study material. These students would have dropped out otherwise,” she said.
She, however, added that the performance had not been good and that the government would look into the reasons why.
