‘Unfilled vacancies, wrong perceptions’

Apart from an overall dip in the pass percentage in the Plus 2 exam results, there has been a dip specifically in the performance of students from government schools.

While 86.87% of the students from government schools cleared the exam in 2017, only 84.60% of the students cleared the exams this year. There has, additionally, been a drop in the number of students who have taken up the exam overall. In government schools, there has been a drop of over 20,000 students.

Even though the Minister for School Education K.A. Sengottaiyan has said that efforts have been taken to make the question papers as well as the evaluation more stringent than the previous years which had contributed to the overall dip in pass percentage, teachers from government schools said that there were additional concerns which needed to be addressed as well.

“There is this worrying belief among students that they will not study well if they go to a government school. We feel this has resulted in more parents spending beyond their means and enrolling students in private schools. It is only in government schools that teachers are appointed after qualifying examinations,” said K.P.O. Suresh, State President of the Tamil Nadu Post Graduate Teachers Association.

‘No shortcomings’

Teachers associations in the State have been calling for filling up vacancies in various schools for a while now. “A lot needs to be done by the education department to improve the teacher-student ratios in these schools as well. With regard to English, Economics and Accountancy, there have always been fewer teachers and students have found it tough to score in those subjects,” he added.

Stating that there were no shortcomings as far as coaching offered to the students was concerned, Mr. Suresh said that the infrastructural concerns of government schools need to be addressed.

A headmaster from a government school said that while students in his school had performed well this year, there had been a marked dip in the number of students scoring centum or above 190 marks.

“Many students did find the question papers tougher and our teachers will now prepare our students to face more challenging questions from this year,” he said.

“While a new syllabus is set to be implemented, it will take a few years for students to adjust to that. There needs to be better recruitment of qualified PG teachers across schools. Several higher secondary schools are floundering since they do not have permanent heads,” said P.K. Ilamaran, President of the Tamil Nadu Teachers Association.