Education Dept seeks 3-year results of schools

Bhanu P Lohumi

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Tribune News Service

Shimla, July 31

Taking a serious note of poor results of students of government high and senior secondary schools in the Classes X and XII examinations, the state Higher Education Department has called for detailed results of the past three years of all the schools.

All the Deputy Directors have been directed to compile the results of the high and senior secondary schools under their jurisdiction and submit the same for review. There are 846 high and 1,552 government senior secondary schools in the state and results of some of the schools had not been satisfactory during the past few years.

The schools with perpetually poor results would be identified and headmasters/principals made accountable for below the average results and schools had been asked to send the results in the pro forma sent by the department, a senior officer of the department said.

The department had asked the Deputy Directors to send the results by July 26. As a large number of schools are closed due to the monsoon break, the exercise could not be completed and the department had to extend the date, but it is hopeful of starting the review exercise in August.

The Deputy Directors have been asked to send the results according to performance and divided the schools into three categories with results below 25 per cent, between 25 and 50 per cent and above 50 per cent for both Classes X and XII board examinations. A special column has been added in the pro forma regarding the strength of teachers to ascertain whether the shortage of teachers or other reasons were responsible for poor results. In case there was no shortage of staff and other infrastructure, the principals and headmasters of the schools could also be made accountable, besides the teacher concerned. The exercise is aimed at improving the quality of education, making teachers accountable and to stop the flight of students from government to private schools. Nearly 5 per cent of students are shifting from government to private schools every year and in case the trend is not arrested, the number of students in government schools will come down drastically.

Teachers attribute the poor results to the scrapping of the board examination system for Classes V and VIII under the RTE (Right to Education) which has made students adopt a casual attitude towards their studies as there are no failures up to Class IX.