Class X students with poor results in pre-boards are toiling to pass the finals.
At around 8:30 am, sitting in a classroom at a government boys’ school in west Delhi, 15-year-old Prakash Singh was carefully drawing an arch using a compass on his notebook trying to make it as perfect as possible. Singh is among those thousands of government school students, who failed in class X pre-board exams conducted in January, and are now toiling to pass the finals.
With only a few days for the CBSE Class X board exams to begin, DNA visited some of the schools being served showcause notices by the Delhi government for their “abysmally low” passing percentage, to have a look at the last minute preparations. Only 31.5 per cent government school students passed the pre-boards.
Singh, along with other students, are now focussing on the “passing tactic” taught by their teacher -- theorems, construction and simple statistics, topics which have maximum weightage in the exams. “The teacher asked us to focus on three topics as they don’t require complex mathematics knowledge,” said Singh.
In Singh’s class, only four of the 36 students passed the pre-boards. “We cannot move a magic wand and fix things at the eleventh hour. Abhi aise questions par focus kar rahe hain jisme score bhi ho jaye aur zyada padhna likhna bhi na padey (As of now, we are focussing on questions that have maximum weightage and do not require much studying),” said the maths teacher, who wished to remain anonymous.
As the clock strikes 9:30 and a bell rings for the next period, students start discussing the homework given by their English teacher, a day before. “Few days are left for the boards and we are still given the homework. Self-study karey ya homework?” wonders Shyam, another student. Most of the students had failed in Mathematics and English in their pre-boards.
Meanwhile, while the students are busy scribbling words on their notebooks, the English teacher has another job at her hand. “We have been asked to make sure that all the students attend the classes. Every day, I have to make calls to parents of all the absent students. Half of my time is wasted in doing that,” she rued.
Terming it as “harassment”, Ajay Veer Singh, general secretary, Government Teachers' Association, said, “Many students at government schools work to support their families and they don’t attend classes regularly. How can we force them to come every day? The government is just harassing teachers for its own mistakes.”
However, officials, at the Directorate of Education (DoE) said that they don’t want to leave any stone unturned. “It is the responsibility of teachers to make sure that all students pass the boards. If required, we will conduct classes for students even during the exams,” a senior official added.
TASK FOR TEACHERS
- Only 31.5 percent class X students passed the pre-boards conducted in government schools in January.
- The passing percentage was higher than the mid-term results that was just 21.5 per cent.
- Following the orders of Delhi Education Minister Manish Sisodia, as many as 120 schools were served show-cause notices for “poor performance”
- An additional exam was conducted across the school following the govt’s order in February first week.
- Schools are now conducting extra classes for the last time preparations
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