Delhi hits education low with failure rate

7.50 per cent failure rate may be due to the poor quality of teachers in government schools
Delhi hits education low with failure rate

The national capital may boast of the best education ecosystem in the country but a government survey has found that the failure rate at the higher secondary level among Delhi students is the highest in India at 7.50 per cent. Thanks to the government schools that have largely overlooked the quality aspects of education and maintaining standards.

Delhi has around 5,600 schools, of which close to 3,400 are run by the government. These schools cater to the masses that come from different segments of the society. So it becomes all the more important to lay greater attention in the classes—individually as well as collectively to maintain standards of education. “Unfortunately, this is lacking,” admitted a vice-principle of a government school.

Lack of effort to track the learning outcome in classes or initiative to address student absenteeism was also cited as some of the reasons for the state of education in the government schools. Of particular concern was the performance of students in the Science stream, where the failure rate was over 40 per cent.

As per a report compiled by the District Information System for Education (DISE) under the HRD Ministry, the failure rate among the boys are 8.50 per cent and 6.39 per cent among girls, with the average rate at 7.50 per cent. The all India average in comparison is just about 1.78 per cent. Among the big states, only Karnataka has a retention rate of 4.58 per cent, but less than Delhi.

“There is no accountability in the system. Unlike in private schools where teachers’ performance are assessed and students are evaluated regularly, government managed schools fail to do so despite education norms,” said an official of the HRD Ministry, who is also associated with the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan initiative.

As part of its initiative to emphasise on infrastructure creation, the Kejriwal government had announced 8,000 additional classes in this year’s budget. However, question loomed large over the quality of education provided.

Lawyer and education rights activist Ashok Agarwal raised serious doubts about the competence of the teachers, saying if an aptitude test would be conducted, 50 per cent of them would fail. “They function more like a government servant, forgetting their onerous task towards the student community,” he said.

According to the survey, government teachers also lose a good number of days performing non-teaching activities, further hampering the learning process. It said that over 12 per cent of the teachers in the city are engaged in non-teaching assignments related to census duties and elections. This results in the loss of 21 days from activities.

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The New Indian Express
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