CHENNAI:Preparing Class 12 students by making them revise only the past years’ exam question papers resulted in corporation school students failing to make the cut in the board examinations, said officials. A post results analysis of the students’ performances compiled by Centre for Science and Learning was discussed among headmasters of Chennai schools and corporation officials at a meeting chaired by the Mayor in Ripon Buildings on Tuesday.
Curiously, officials noted that Commerce was the subject that produced the most number of toppers as well as failures. “We also found that the failures were mostly restricted to one or two schools. For instance, 15 students of a school failed in History and likewise 30 in Commerce. So the problem is that the methodology of teaching had to be wrong,” said a senior official. “Teachers were found to have revised only question papers from examinations conducted in the last five years,” the official added.
Speaking to City Express, on condition of anonymity, a headmaster said that teachers were resorting to such steps because in certain areas there was very little compulsion from parents to make their kids learn. “When we do field trips visiting the homes of some of the underprivileged kids, their parents are hardly bothered about the child’s future. Kids from such homes fail to turn up for classes regularly and when they do, they go missing post noon,” the headmaster said.
Disciplinary issues were also cited as one of the reasons behind the dip in performance. Officials said that a pattern was found between underperforming schools and disciplinary issues. “These are the schools where there are police cases slapped against students. Including drinking during class hours, there were several disciplinary issues noted. We believe it also to be the primary reason behind boys faring badly compared to girls,” an official said.
Rectification begins from shredding leniency, starting with Class 11. “We found out that students who had not performed up to the mark or failed in Class 11 were promoted anyway. We have decided to not hesitate holding back a particular student because the norms permit us to hold 15 per cent, if needed,” said a senior official.
The corporation will also revise its blueprint to tutor Class 12 students. Performance will be monitored in mid term, quarterly and half yearly exams. “If a drop in performance is recorded, we will pay extra attention to the student. The performing kids will be coached to earn high cut off marks while the slow learners will be tutored to score more than 60 per cent marks at least,” the official added.
College Admission Aid for Kids
The corporation has prepared a dossier for every individual student candidate who cleared the Class 12 exams with adequate cut off percentage which includes a list of engineering, arts and science and law colleges that they can gain admission in. Officials said that 842 students are eligible for admission via counselling in the top 100 engineering colleges in the State. The civic body is also preparing failed students to appear for the supplementary exams.