For 100% result, schools can’t drop weak pupils

Balwant Garg

Tribune News Service

Faridkot, March 23

The School Education Department has announced to withdraw the no-objection certificate (NOC) of private schools which force weak students to leave the school to maintain a reputation for academic excellence in board examinations.

If a school wants to drop poor performers in Classes IX and XI, it has to take permission from the district education officer (DEO).

In a letter issued to all government and private school heads in the state, the Director, School Education Department (Secondary), has conveyed on Saturday that there were complaints of many private schools in the state refraining students of Classes IX and XI from attending classes on the ground of low marks.

With an objective of securing 100 per cent results in the board examinations and show up academic excellence, some private schools go out of their way to be discreet about the practice of making a list of students in Classes IX and XI that they think could fail if allowed to take the board examinations the next year.

These students are asked to spend one more year in the same class or leave. This leads to a protest by the parents. This practice of dropping a student on the grounds of poor performance is making adverse impact on the growth of students and making them face many difficulties, reads the director’s letter to all school heads.

If there is a logical reason to ask a student to leave school, the DEO can permit it but dropping a student on the basis of his poor academic performance is not acceptable, said the director. After taking the responsibility of their education, schools cannot be allowed to drop a student just to maintain a reputation for academic excellence, he said.

After the Classes IX and XI examinations and before declaring the results, many schools offer two options to low performing students: Repeat the class or leave with a pass certificate. These schools even do not agree to the parents’ demand of taking re-examination of these students, said Atul Bansal, father of a student in Faridkot.

Instead of preparing these students for scoring better marks in board examinations, the schools prefer to make them leave the school, absolving themselves of their responsibility to educate students, said a parent.

Complaints against schools

• The School Education Department received many complaints that private school students of Classes IX and XI were refrained from attending classes for securing poor marks
• If a school wants to drop a student, it has to take permission from the DEO concerned