With high detention rates, Std 9 a major hurdle before SSC

Detentions mainly due to tendency of schools to ensure better pass percentage at SSC exams

| MAY 27, 2018, 07:41 PM IST

PANDURANG GAONKAR  

PANAJI

Passing SSC has traditionally been a milestone for  students but clearing Std 9 has become an even bigger hurdle in recent  times, given the high detention rates in the State.  

Even though the pass percentage of students in the SSC  exams have ranged between 90% and 91% in the last three years, the  number of students detained in Std 9 has been a staggering 9,000-11,000  during these last three academic years.  

The no-detention education policy has left a large number  of Std 8 students getting promoted to Std 9 with little difficulty, but  thousands of them have been struggling to clear the Std 9 and get  promoted to SSC.  

For instance, in the last academic year, there were 29,437  students who got promoted to Std 9, but only 20,359 were subsequently  promoted to SSC, leaving 9,078 students detained in Std 9. Incidentally,  only 19,596 students appeared for examination as 655 students were  repeaters in the SSC exam.  

According to sources, the high detention in Std 9 is due to  various factors and one of them has been the tendency of schools to  detain weak students in Std 9 to ensure a better pass percentage at SSC.  

“Little efforts have been made to arrange extra classes for  these weaker students, to enable them pass Std 9 and move to SSC. With  the policy of passing students till Std 8, teachers need to have  Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE), so that students do not face  difficulties moving from Std 9 to SSC,” remarked a source.  

The source also added that students have taken passing for  granted till Std 8, leaving them unable to cope with the possibility of  failure in Std 9.   

When contacted, an academician Dr Sanjay Dessai said  teachers, students and policy makers collectively have a crucial role in  ensuring the reduction of these detention rates in Std 9.  

“Due to no-fail policy, students are promoted up to Std 8 and they are detained by school at Std 9 to get good results at SSC.”  

“It looks like the students who are detained at Std 9 are  not serious about studies, so schools are not promoting them. The main  cause of this problem is failure to implement the no-fail policy  properly,” said Dr Dessai.  

“Under Right to Education Act, Continuous and Comprehensive  Evaluation (CCE) process of assessment was mandated and that is  required for successful implementation of no fail policy.”  

“Under that system, weaker students are to be upgraded with  additional/remedial teaching, but sadly our teachers and policy makers  have failed in successfully implementing the no-fail policy,” he added.

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