Detain or retain? Is nine the new 10?

Kozhikode: Nishila (17), a Class 9 student of Sulla Mussalam Oriental High School, Areekode of Malappuram district was a confident girl on May 2, the day she was to get her exam results as she was sure that that her name would be on the list for Class 10, having failed the previous year. When she found out that she had not passed, Nishila hanged herself. She was one more casualty of a faulty education system and thoughtless school managements looking for 100 per cent results in SSLC.

On the one hand, failure to clear an exam has been the reason for many suicides by students in the past. On the other, students and parents are alleging that hundreds of students are being failed by the school authorities who are eyeing a higher result percentage in SSLC. The trend is not just in the state syllabus schools, but increasingly in CBSE schools too. The higher secondary schools are also following this dangerous trend, say education activists.

“I don't think that it is a healthy trend. Instead of failing the students who are weak in studies, the school authorities and teachers should track them at an early stage and give them special training to tackle the examinations,” said Akshay  Babu of Silver Hills Higher Secondary School, Kozhikode.   

“Without giving the student a second chance to write the exam, schools are failing them. This will affect their confidence level,” said Shejina Manoj, a parent. Some schools are adopting yet another strategy to avoid dealing with weaker students in Class 10. They offer passing the students in Class 9 upon the condition that they take a transfer certificate from the school. The trend is now common among Plus One students.

“A majority of students and parents are forced to accept this condition because there is no other option for them other than wasting a year,” said Balu Kiran of Pantheerankavu Hidaya Public School. “The school is forgetting its primary duty, which is to encourage the weaker students and take them forward by giving them special attention,” said Kozhikode Government Model HSS PTA President N.A. Razak.

Noted education activist and Value based Education Protection Council State Convener Sukumaran Periyachur says that government and teachers’ associations were responsible for such a state of affairs.

“When the Right to Education Act was implemented, the government forgot about Class 9 students. The RTE stipulated that all should be passed till Class 8, while the old system continues for Class 9,  according to which ‘if needed 20 per cent students can be detained’. This is an outdated provision,” he said.

“Teachers, fearing a fall in the division obtained, and academicians, are equally responsible for not taking up this topic for a debate,” he added.
Education activists are suggesting that the government draw up a clear policy for the promotion of Class 9 students. Giving failed students a 'Save a Year' (SAY) exam is an option they say that will not tamper with the system and also help them save a year. Who will bell the cat, remains the question.