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Students come out of a Government School at Dharamsala.

Ambika Sharma

The situation is indeed dismal and disappointing. As many as 182 schools in Himachal registered a pass percentage of less than 25 in the board examinations of Class X and XII last year. Considering the urgency of remedial action, the Himachal Pradesh Higher Education Department for the first time initiated a slew of measures to improve the performance of government schools.

Sirmaur SP shows the way, has started weekly ‘pathshala’

Ajay Krishan Sharma, Sirmaur SP, has gained much appreciation for starting a weekly ‘pathshala’ where poor deserving students of government schools are provided free coaching by teachers of a private school at Nahan.
To ensure that only serious and deserving students are provided coaching, an entrance exam was conducted in 2019 but only 16 of 40 students screened were selected. Select teachers of Arihant International School, Nahan, have been roped in for the weekly coaching. They have prepared a module of the key components of the Class XII syllabus of chemistry, physics and mathematics that can be completed in 20 Sundays.

“Students, who can’t afford private coaching, can avail of the opportunity of attending the weekly classes to strengthen their basic understanding of a subject. I hail from a rural background and I too had felt the need of extra coaching, which was not available then. Now, I want to help poor students to achieve something in life,” he says.

Sharma began the weekly ‘pathshala’ in 2017 while serving as the Commandant of 6th India Reserve Battalion at Kolar. “As many as 45 Class XII students of five government schools of the area have been provided free coaching. Hundred students had initially enrolled at the ‘pathshala’ but later only 45 students had the complete coaching at the Nahan Police Lines. About 60 per cent students, who availed of the facility, were girls. The students of four of the five schools, who were coached, excelled in their Class XII exams”.

In November last year, the department devised a comprehensive framework, including pre-board exams, with the aim to enhance the pass percentage to 80 per cent in both Class X and XII. Notably, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Karnataka showed significant improvement in the board exam results in 2019 as compared to 2018. In Madhya Pradesh, the pass percentage in the Class XII exams increased from 68 per cent (2018) to 72 per cent (2019) while in Haryana it increased from 65 per cent (2018) to 74 per cent (2019).

POLICE PATHSHALA.jpg — A police ‘pathshala’ underway at 6th IRB
Battalion at Dhaula Kuan
town in Sirmaur. Tribune photos

A National Achievement Survey conducted by the National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT) in 2018 found that the average achievement (subject-wise learning outcome) of the state in four main subjects — mathematics, social science, science and English — vis-à-vis the national average was low. It pointed out that the pass percentage in the Class X board exams came down to 63.39 per cent during 2017-18 from 67.57 per cent during 2016-17 whereas in the Class XII board examinations it fell from 72.89 per cent during 2016-17 to 70.18 per cent during 2017-18.

Child-centric approach

Consistent poor performance of students became a cause for concern for the state government, which directed officials and teachers to take steps to improve the results. The steps included identifying poor performers in all classes and organising remedial classes as a team effort, besides mentoring teachers as well as students to encourage them to perform better.

A child-centric approach was adopted by providing more opportunities to the students to express themselves and gain more knowledge and by enhancing their skills of understanding and application of knowledge. The teachers were also directed to adopt small action research-based study in classes by assigning projects based on actionable research in various topics derived from their everyday life. Students were supposed to prepare projects after identifying problems of science, mathematics, English and social science and prepare a hypothesis, and action plan. Collecting and interpreting data based on their observation and drawing conclusions were also enlisted as innovative measures to be adopted to improve their learning skills.

Limited success

These measures, however, could not be adopted in letter and in spirit and these also could not help in sizably improving the pass percentage in the board examinations. Thus the government was compelled to devise more effective strategies. A section of teachers, when quizzed, did not even remember having adopted such measures. Hence, these directions remained only on paper.

“To ensure that elementary education is made available to all students in the age group of six to 14 years, it was decided to retain all students up to Class VIII. But the measure proved to be counterproductive as even weak students were promoted to the next class. All students were further promoted up to Class X as less than 80 per cent results were not considered desirable. This system failed to filter weak students, who mainly contributed to the poor results of the board exams. It has been done away with and now merit is being promoted,” says Pradeep Sharma, senior vice-president of HP School Lecturers Association.

Retention of students

The NCERT survey revealed that the rate of retention of students in Class VIII in government schools was 100 per cent for 2018-2019 and 90.61 per cent in Class XI while the results of Class X and XII exams had declined drastically. The student-teacher ratio was 10:49 for higher secondary classes, which means there were an adequate number of teachers. There were 824,073 students enrolled in 15,368 schools governed by the state Education Department.

The survey stated that schools were upgraded to high and senior secondary levels, at times, on political considerations but several of these did not have adequate staff due to their location in backward areas. With little parental assistance available to students of government schools, learning was limited to schools and these factors further contributed to their poor performances.

Kangra poorest performer

An analysis of the board examination results of Class X and XII in 2019 shows that 182 schools in 11 of the 12 districts of the state registered an abysmally poor pass percentage of less than 25. The highest number of 39 schools with less than 25 per cent pass results is in Kangra district, followed by Shimla (36), Chamba (23), Mandi (21), Una (16), Solan (14), Kullu (12), Kinnaur (9), Sirmaur (7), Lahaul and Spiti (4) and Bilaspur (1). Hamirpur is the only district in the state where the pass percentage of government schools was more than 25 per cent.

Class XII: 46% pass in Kinnaur

The government schools in Kinnaur district registered the lowest pass percentage of 46 in the Class XII exams, followed by Chamba (53), Kangra (58) and Una (58), Solan (63), Lahaul and Spiti (64), Sirmaur (65), Shimla (66), Kullu (68) and Mandi (68), Bilaspur (70) and Hamirpur (74). The state average of pass percentage in the Class XII exams was 63 per cent.

The Class X board exam results in government schools was even worse in 2019; the state average was a mere 55 per cent. Kinnaur district with a mere 41 per cent pass percentage had the poorest performance, followed by Una (51) and Kullu (51), Kangra (52), Shimla (53), Sirmaur (54), Solan (55), Lahaul and Spiti (58), Bilaspur (63), and Hamirpur (70).

Comprehensive plan

A comprehensive framework devised by the Higher Education Department to improve the board exam results includes school-level improvement plans based on term exam results, pre-board exams, remedial classes, revision and practice tests, workshops on how to score good marks and question banks. In a bid to ensure that the strategy proves to be effective, the deputy directors in all districts have been directed to monitor the performance of lowest performing schools and ensure the implementation of school-level strategies by monitoring their weekly performance reports.

Pre-board exams

The State Council of Education Research and Training (SCERT) was entrusted with the task of preparing question papers for the pre-board exams conducted from December 7 to 21 last year. The exam results were uploaded on the designated Internet site for senior officials to monitor subsequent measures such as remedial classes in various subjects and the progress reports were also uploaded on a weekly basis.

Winter vacation

The planning, however, was not successful in the case of the schools that observed winter vacation and the pre-board exams in December consumed a significant number of teaching days at a time when teachers were trying to complete the syllabus. The winter vacation lasted from January 1 to February 11 and thus the teachers had little time to hold remedial classes or other preparatory activities enlisted in the school-level strategy to improve the board exam results.

Despite several teething problems in the implementation of these measures, the officials are hopeful that they could improve the system and raise the pass percentage in the board exams.

Pradeep Sharma welcomes the decision to hold pre-board exams and remedial classes. He says that the education authorities should devise a separate timeframe for the schools that have vacation during the winter, as a number of days in December are devoted to the exams, making it difficult for the teachers to complete the syllabus. And when the schools resumed on February 12, extra coaching could not be undertaken as practical examinations began on February 15.

“To make matter worse, teachers have been directed to attend a seminar of the Central Government-aided NISHTA (National Initiative for School Heads and Teachers Holistic Advancement) programme aimed at improving the quality of school education through training. This denied students the assistance of teachers during crucial pre-board exam days,” adds Sharma.

The ill-timing of the programme has defeated the purpose of the initiative to undertake additional measures for weak students.

“Teachers are burdened with a gamut of non-academic activities such as cleanliness drives, sports, and seminars that consume a significant number of teaching days every year. This also contributes to the poor board exam results,” says Sharma. Since most of the children have little or no academic assistance at home, they do not study during the winter vacation in January and February when the final exams are around; thus poor results, he adds.

Lack of clarity

Narinder Sharma, a former association member, says that the strategy lacks clarity on class-level and revision tests. The criteria for performance evaluation have not been specified. He adds that the instructions can be followed by the schools that observe summer vacation, but a separate set of instructions will have to be devised for the winter-closing schools.