Education dept looks at remedial steps after 28,000 fail in Class 9

MUMBAI: More than 28,000 students in Mumbai state board schools failed to clear class 9 exams in March 2015.

This was revealed after the schools submitted the figures to the education department.

Even as schools blame it on the no-fail policy till Class 8, the education department is looking at ways to reform it.

For starters, city schools have been asked to share information on how many students were promoted from Class 8 to Class 9 in 2013-14 and how many of them made it to Class 10 in 2014-15.

The figures show that the maximum failure rate — about 16.22% — is seen in Class 9.

“In the state-wide figures, Mumbai has the highest number of Class 9 dropouts. Since students have the option of appearing for Class X exams as private candidates, alarms are hardly raised,” said BB Chavan, deputy director of school education.

The education department has once again pointed out the schools’ attitude towards academically weak Class 9 students who are often held back as schools compete to achieve 100% pass results in Class 10 examinations.

Schools have their own reasons.

“Two separate agencies work on the state board curriculum till Class 8. From Class 9, the Maharashtra state board takes over. There’s no correlation between the syllabus and students find it difficult to cope,” said Rohan Bhat, chairperson of Children’s Academy group of schools.

Principal secretary of state school education Nand Kumar told HT that the government is trying to introduce “accelerated learning methodology” in which students of Classes 9 and 10 will be taught and tested beyond the syllabus.

“The dropout rate in Class 9 will definitely be brought down,” said Kumar.

Schools said this will not remedy the situation.

“There’s a need to revamp the system and make remedial classes more accessible to students,” said Fr Franics Swamy, coordinator of St Xavier’s High School, Dhobi Talao.

Source | Hindustan Times | 20 January 2016

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