While the State has registered a high pass percentage in SSLC and Plus Two, retired teachers and professors do not agree it is a measure of stellar performance by students.
“High scoring students in school do not perform well in college as their foundation in Class IX and XI is weak,” says retired professor P. Sivakumar, a member of Makkal Kalvi Movement.
According to the members of the Movement, poor knowledge of concepts prevents students from attempting competitive exams like the IIT’s Joint Entrance Exam.
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“Schools have become factories that produce 100 per cent results, but students do not learn the concepts. For instance, in the IAS exam a question asked is “What rolls faster – a boiled egg or a raw egg. A student who knows the concept of viscosity, which is taught in Class XI, would answer correctly. When schools skip Class XI subjects to prepare students for Class XII, they miss out on some subjects completely,” he says.
According to him, government schools do not make this mistake, but the desire to score high marks is seeping in to them too. A solution would be to make students write a public exam in Class XI too, as was being done in some neighbouring States. “Also, the objective type two-mark questions should be made analytical, that calls for thinking,” says Dr. Sivakumar.