Campus Watch
Himachal’s school teachers blame grading system, non-performing students, low learning level for poor board results
Due to CCE (continuous and comprehensive evaluation) we cannot fail students. Even if students do not attend classes, their names cannot be struck off the rolls
SHIMLA- Manju Thakur hadn’t seen it coming. In the results of the Himachal Pradesh Board of School Education declared this month, she scored 11 marks in science, 11 in maths and 7 in English. Only 20 of 122 students passed the Class X state board exams at Government Senior Secondary School at Pathiar, Kangra, where Manju studies. Seventeen others got compartments. Most of the students got low marks in science, maths and English, like Manju, daughter of a farm labourer.
Teachers would tell me she is good at studies,
said Manju’s mother Lajja Devi, who is perplexed.
Manju used to say the teachers are teaching well.
Manju’s sister Anjana, in Class XII at the same school, a walk of 1.5 km from their home, said her sister’s teachers had told her, too, that Manju was doing well. Anjana herself had scored 71 per cent in Class X.
This year, the highest any Class X student of this school scored was 53 per cent. It is one of 86 schools in Himachal Pradesh with a pass percentage 20 or lower in this year’s Class X and XII board exams.
Principal Mehar Singh, however, is not surprised.
The learning level of most students is not up to the mark,
Singh said.
Due to CCE (continuous and comprehensive evaluation) we cannot fail students. Even if students do not attend classes, their names cannot be struck off the rolls.
No student passed Class X in 16 government schools, and none passed Class XII in three. Overall, however, the board results were better than in the previous two years 66.88 per cent passed Class X after 57.18 per cent in 2014 and 65.25 per cent in 2015, while 78.61 passed XII after 67.09 per cent in 2014 and 68.63 per cent in 2015.
The principal said private schools don’t see high failures as they simply ask parents to take out a non-performing child. Many such children come and join government schools, he says.
After students complete primary classes, Class VI teachers find they don’t even know the basics like the alphabet or counting,
said Chitra, who teaches social studies.
It is when they appear for the boards that their level of knowledge is tested.
Once among the top-ranking states on schooling and learning, Himachal presented poor results in the Annual Survey of Education Research (ASER) in 2014. Around 1.7 per cent of Class VIII students in rural schools could not recognise the digits, 15 per cent could not tell 10 to 99, and 21.5 per cent could do subtraction but not division. In English, 0.5 per cent students could not read capital letters, and 1.2 per cent failed with small letters.
Sudipto Roy, Himachal’s education secretary from 2000 to 2003, said the state was actually well placed to implement the RTE.
I was able to provide 90 per cent boys and girls access to school. The dropout level at the time was the least in the country,
he said. But doing away with the exam system proved detrimental, he said.
The only way to judge quality is examination. Unfortunately, examinations are not so important in the country any more.
The number of students in government primary schools has been falling, from 5.89 lakh in 2003 to 3.23 lakh in 2015-16. Across levels, the state has 9.31 lakh students in 15,327 government schools, and more than 5 lakh students in 2,712 private schools.
The Pathiar school, set up in 1937, has 512 students now. Its science labs double up as classrooms. Of the sanctioned 24 faculty members, the posts of two Sanskrit teachers, one drawing teacher and two lab assistants are vacant.
Bucking the trend in this school, however, was Ranjit, son of a labourer. He scored 93 per cent in Class XII and has cleared the JEE (Main) cutoff.
I got guidance from teachers. I was determined to get good marks and I did,
Ranjit said.
Photo: Representational image
Solan: Naincy Sagar, an alumna of Dr. YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni has bagged a fellowship for pursuing PhD from France. Nancy has reached France and will be pursuing PhD in Forest Genetics from the University of Orléans under INRAE fellowship. INRAE is France’s National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment.
Naincy has completed her BSc Forestry from College of Horticulture and Forestry (COH&F), Neri in 2018 and MSc Forest Biology and Tree Improvement and Genetic Resources from UAS, Dharwad, under ICAR’s National Talent Scheme. Before leaving for France last week, Naincy was working as a Junior Research Fellow in a research project at COH&F, Neri.
She had applied for a PhD with a scholarship in Forest Genetics which was advertised by INRAE. Naincy was successful in the interview and was awarded a fellowship for three years for pursuing PhD at the University of Orléans. During the course of the PhD, she will receive a total scholarship of around Rs 70 lakh along with medical reimbursement. Naincy will be working on forest tree larch species in the Project titled ‘Vigour at what cost? ‘Trade-off’ of hybrid vigour in Larch-Phenological, morphological and physiological determinants of hybrid superiority in Larix X eurolepis’ with a team of 20 scientists of Joint Integrated Biology Research Unit having expertise in genetics, genomics and physiology for the enhancement of tree and forest diversity
Dr. Parvinder Kaushal, Vice-Chancellor of the university spoke to Naincy via web conferencing and congratulated her. Dr. Kaushal, who has also done his doctorate from France, shared some tips and suggestions. He asked Naincy to explore this opportunity to learn about new cultures along with doing research that could help to enhance and conserve forest wealth in the future.
Naincy expressed gratitude towards her father Satya Prakash Sagar (Retd. SDO BSNL) and mother Monika Sagar, who is working as SDO in BSNL for their continuous support for higher studies. She also thanked Vice-Chancellor Dr. Parvinder Kaushal, Dean Dr. Kamal Sharma and Dr. Dushyant Sharma, Project Investigator and all the university staff for their support and guidance. The university administration, Dean of COH&F Neri congratulated Naincy and wished her success.
Shimla-Dates for admissions to undergraduate courses for the session 2021-22 in colleges affiliated to Himachal Pradesh University has been extended, which has come as a relief to not only those students who were seeking fresh enrollments in the first year but also to the students of the second and third year.
The varsity informed that the decision was taken after considering requests received from various students regarding the same.
Now, willing students can apply for enrollment in both government and private colleges till 5 PM, October 25, 2021.
This extension of date would benefit students who recently passed supplementary exams or those students of the second and third-year who had missed admission due to delay in declaration of their previous results.
Solan– Dr. YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry (UHF), Nauni, has extended the last date for applying to various Undergraduate, Postgraduate and Doctoral programmes in Horticulture, Forestry, Biotechnology, Agribusiness and Business Management. Applicants can submit their complete online application on the university’s admission portal till 18th October.
The normal seats of BSc (Hons) Horticulture, BSc (Hons) Forestry and B Tech Biotechnology will be filled on the basis of scorecard of ICAR-AIEEA (UG) 2021.
Admissions to MSc, MBA (Agribusiness) and PhD (for normal and self-financing seats) will also be conducted on the scorecard of ICAR AIEEA (PG) and AICE-JRF/SRF respectively. Students who have appeared in the ICAR-AIEEA 2021 for UG and PG, or AICE-JRF/SRF examination and are interested in seeking admission, such students must fill the university online application form before 18th October. Undergraduate aspirants who have not appeared in the ICAR test can however apply for the self-financing seats for B Sc and B Tech Biotechnology programmes run by the university by filling the online application on the university website.
The university has also advised the registered candidates to submit complete online application forms along with online payment acknowledgement slip before the due date. The schedule for online counselling will be announced by the University on the website after the declaration of the ICAR examination result. Application forms other than online mode will not be accepted.
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