Udupi misses the top slot narrowly this time

Udupi district has stood second in the State with 90.67 % passes in the Second Pre-University examinations, the results of which were announced on Monday.

The district narrowly missed the top slot to Dakshina Kannada by 0.82%, which got 91.49%. Udupi district has either topped the State or taken the second place in the II PU results for the last 14 years.

Since there is a high priority to education in the coastal districts, parents, teachers and students wait eagerly for the results of the SSLC and Second PUC examinations.

As Udupi district topped the State last year with 90.01% after occupying the second slot for three years, it was hoped here that it would retain the same position this year. But that was not to be. This despite the fact that the district had improved its pass percentage when compared to the II PU results of 2016-17 by 0.66%.

Vijayalakshmi B. Nayak, Deputy Director of Pre-University Education Department, could not hide her disappointment at the district narrowly losing the top slot to the neighbouring Dakshina Kannada.

Ms. Nayak told The Hindu that the department had begun its preparations for the II PU examinations since the beginning of the academic year. To improve the performance of students in English, English speaking classes were being held in select colleges every Sunday. Students belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes were given special coaching in all subjects.

Wherever there were no lecturers in colleges as they had gone to do the B.Ed course, guest lecturers were appointed. There was continuous monitoring of the performance of the students by principals and lecturers.

Regular training was held for lecturers of Science subjects. “I visited 105 PU colleges in the last four months in the district to check why results were poor in some of them and to improve their performance,” she said.

Periodic meetings were held with college principals to monitor the progress of PU colleges. “While we did all this for regular students, the performance of external students is normally below par and this affects the pass percentage. And, we have no control over it,” Ms. Nayak said.