The proclamation of the sslc (Secondary School Leaving Certificate) class X board exam results of 5,159 government secondary schools affiliated with the Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board (KSEEB) has shocked educationists in the hi-tech city of Bangalore, the admin capital of the state (pop. 67 million). The percentage of students who passed the undemanding state board class X exam has slipped from 76.84 percent in 2016 to 68.87 percent. This pass percentage is embarrassingly lower than of the state’s private schools (80.7 percent).
A mere 268 of the 5,159 public secondaries recorded a pass percentage of 100 percent cf. 480 in 2016. Moreover, this year the number of schools with not even one student passing the class X board exam has risen to 59 from 52 last year. Sixteen schools in Bengaluru (pop. 11 million), the hub of the country’s IT and ITES industries, recorded nil passout.
D. Shashi Kumar, general secretary of the Karnataka Associated Managements of English Medium Schools (KAMS) which has a membership of 1,700 private schools statewide, ascribes the dismal performance of government secondary schools to lack of adequate infrastructure, poor quality teachers and the no-detention in primary school years provision (s.16) of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009. “Over the past seven years because of s.16, thousands of children have been routinely promoted to class VIII without testing their attainments. These students are completely unprepared for secondary education (classes IX-X) and the rigours of the class X school-leaving exam. Children with poor learning outcomes in their primary years can’t suddenly be expected to perform well in high school. Moreover, despite huge taxes paid by the public, Karnataka’s government schools lack enabling infrastructure and quality teachers. Unless these issues are addressed and remedial education is given to children entering high school on a mass scale, the percentage of government school students passing the class X exam will continue to decline,” warns Kumar.
Informed educationists in Bangalore are near unanimous that there’s direct cause-and-effect connection between s.16 of the RTE Act and plunging learning outcomes in Karnataka’s government secondaries. To his credit, Union HRD minister Prakash Javadekar was quick to discern this contradiction. Last October, a CABE (Central Advisory Board of Education) meeting chaired by Javadekar advised the Central government to repeal s.16 and recommended re-introduction of semester and annual exams at the option of state governments. Since then, many state governments have begun the process of amending their RTE rules to hold back failed primary students.
Curiously, while most states have enthusiastically welcomed the repeal of s.16 and introduction of exams in classes I-VIII, the Karnataka government is still “considering” a review of the no-detention policy. “The state government is planning to improve the continuous and comprehensive evaluation system while reviewing the no-detention in primary education of the RTE Act. We have also started the process of filling teachers’ vacancies in government secondary schools and are planning to introduce teacher training programmes to enable our teachers to deliver better quality education,” says Yashodha Bopanna, director of KSEEB.
But with the Annual Status of Education Report 2016 published by the well-known Mumbai-based education NGO Pratham, indicating that only 41.6 percent of class V children of government schools in the state can read a class II text (cf. 62.9 percent in private schools) and 78.9 percent cannot negotiate simple subtraction and division sums, there’s no doubt that enactment of s.16 has been a huge mistake that has made already poor learning outcomes in government — and private — schools, worse.
Seven years after the RTE Act was hastily enacted without thorough debate, children all over the country — Karnataka included — are paying the price.
Odeal D’Souza (Bangalore)