RAIPUR: Tribal students inhabiting Dantewada, the worst Maoist-affected district in south Chhattisgarh, have made their presence felt in the high school board examination results with the pass percentage crossing the 80 per cent mark for the first time. Chhattisgarh's overall pass percentage was 61 %.
Dantewada, where left-wing extremists had demolished a maximum number of schools during the last decade and a half, has improved its previous year’s result of 64 per cent.
The district with 80.70 pass percentage emerged as the best performing district in the board exam. Girls performed marginally better than boys with their pass percentage at 81.57 and 79.83 respectively.
Some educationists were astonished with the results and felt it should be examined.
We decided to focus on the previous exam results, examine it and set the targets. The strategy was judiciously executed with the involvement of principals, academic staff, teachers and sarpanchs. The reasons for poorly performing schools was looked into, Dantewada collector Saurabh Kumar, who received the PMs Excellence award in Delhi on Friday, told the New Indian Express.
The Vidya Mitan (Teachers) Project under which 1,800 teachers were especially appointed for the tribal areas has also helped in improving their performance.
The district administration began conducting mandatory test series every month in all schools, which were monitored by the officials. Even the people’s representatives were urged to observe the process in their respective areas.
The results were put on the website and the performance was reviewed and analysed by the education department every month in the presence of the collector and the district education officer.
Parents feedback was also routinely taken. Such practices of test paper series and marathon review meetings were never held before, assistant director, school education department, Ahilya Thakur said.
The sarpanchs were asked to persuade parents to encourage their children to work hard and build a better career. The approach had a good outcome, district education officer Subhash Ganjir said.
There were extra classes held a couple of months before the exam. During the review of their performance, we found some students who did not do well. We also identified many who were in need of greater attention and had the capability to excel, said the collector.