II PU: Dakshina Kannada regains top position

After a year, Dakshina Kannada emerged topper in the State as far as II Pre University results, which were announced on Monday, are concerned. Efforts put in by teachers to improve the performance of slow learners appears to have paid off in the district regaining the top slot.

It was the runner-up in the State last year. The district was the topper in the State for three years from 2014 to 2016.

Dakshina Kannada recorded 91.49 % results in the examinations conducted this year. Of the 34,807 freshers who wrote the examination, 31,844 have passed.

Of the overall 38,578 students, including freshers, repeaters and private candidates, who wrote the examination, 33,545 cleared the examination this year. Of them, 17,353 were girls and 16,192 boys.

A maximum of 15,457 students have passed in the Science stream, followed by 14,509 students in Commerce and 3,579 in the Arts stream.

In-charge Deputy Director of Pre University Department, Dakshina Kannada, Elvira Philomena said that teachers gave more stress to improving the performance of slow learners in this year’s examination. Lecturers and college staff persuaded parents to send slow learners to colleges for preparation during the three-week revision holidays in February. The efforts put in by lecturers have paid off and led to a decrease in the number of failures this year when compared to last year. The slow learners were identified when they were in the first year itself.

While thanking lecturers for their committed work, Ms. Philomena congratulated students for doing well in the examination. She also lauded the unflinching support given by parents to the lecturers work. “It’s a team work that has helped us to do well in the Pre University examination,” she told The Hindu.

Kishore Kumar Rai Sheni, general secretary of Dakshina Kannada Pre University College Principals Association, said that several colleges held free extra classes for slow learners throughout the academic year. There were special training programmes for lecturers at the start of the academic year in 2017, he said.

The pass percentage of 91.49 this year is better than the one in 2016 when it stood at 90.48 %. But this was less compared to 93.09 % secured in 2015. The district had a pass percentage of 89.92 in 2017.