District tumbles from 29 to 9 on merit list

Nikhila Pant Dhawan

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, May 22

The graph of students studying in district schools affiliated to PSEB has dipped over the last one year and this was indicated clearly in the results of class X examinations declared today.

As compared to last year, when 29 students from the district had made it to the merit list, this year only nine students were on the list. In 2015, 25 students and in 2014, 20 students from the district had made it to the merit list.

Over the years, a drastic drop in the pass percentage of students has also been witnessed. While in 2012 the pass percentage was recorded at 61.66, it decreased to 56.12 per cent in 2015 and fell further to 47.71 per cent in 2017.

District Education Officer (Secondary) Khushvir Singh said the shortage of teachers, the rule of not failing any student till class VIII and strict anti-copying rules may have led to the drop in the result of the district.

“Talking about only Bathinda district and not comparing it with any other district, we can say that we have very strict anti-copying rules for the benefit of the students. The government schools have fared badly since most of the students in these schools belong to a financially weaker background. Shortage of teachers in the government schools has also caused a dent in the standard of education,” he added.

Rakesh Narula, a retired government school teacher, said “The lack of infrastructure in government schools is the major reason behind poor performance of students of government schools. In some of the biggest schools in the district, there is a shortage of teachers. The government must immediately fill the vacant posts in government schools if it is serious towards raising the standard of education in the schools.”

District president of Democratic Teachers Front Resham Singh blamed the government for the dismal performance of students in the PSEB examinations. “A majority of students who secure a place on the merit list are from private schools affiliated to the PSEB,” he said.

“It is a shame that while qualified teachers are left to stage protests on the roads, posts of various teachers are lying vacant in the government schools. The PSEB results will improve only when students of government schools begin performing well in the board examinations and this is possible only when there is no shortage of teachers in their schools,” he added.