Corporation schools in the city improved their performance in the SSLC examinations by 3.73 percentage points, taking the overall pass percentage to 98.38%, which stagnated around 94% since 2016.
A total of 1,757 students out of the 1,786 who appeared for the Class 10 exams, passed. Confining to trends over the last two years, more girls than boys appeared for the exam. Of the 1,370 girls who appeared for the examination, 1,344 passed. Corporation Commissioner S. Visakan attributed this to the presence of more girls’ schools in Madurai.
Seventeen of the 24 schools achieved cent percent results. Corporation’s Chief Education Officer P. Vijaya ascribed the better performance to said rigorous coaching conducted for students twice a day. “Students had special coaching in the morning and evening in all schools. They were also asked to come to class on Saturday so that their focus will be only on studies, particularly in the last three months before the exam,” she said. Students were regularly asked to write tests and answer quizzes to sharpen the knowledge of the subject.
Mr. Visakan said the students were given snacks, tea/coffee during the evening study time. “Our aim now is 100% pass in all schools next year. We will study areas that needed improvement and check why seven schools lagged behind,” he said.
One of the toppers from E.V.R. Nagammaiyar Corporation Girls High School, S. Aashika Rani, who secured 476 marks, said she will study Bio-Maths and become a doctor. “I found maths difficult at first and attended tuitions, but only till I learnt the concepts,” she said.
The CEO said that there was a plan to enrol more students in Corporation schools through advertising. “The quality of education we provide is on a par with private schools,” she said.
