Many schools that enjoyed the distinction of bagging cent per cent passes and those that received flak for not seeing a single candidate pass the Secondary School Leaving Certificate examination had student strength of single digits.
Out of 46 schools across the State that saw none of its students pass, 20 had nine or fewer students appearing for the SSLC examination. An aided school in the city had only one student who appeared for the boards but did not clear it.
An official with the Education Department said that earlier there was a rule that allowed them to not renew the recognition of schools that did not have a minimum student strength of 25. However, this rule has been scrapped now.
Poor infrastructure
“Most schools with zero passes are those with poor infrastructure and teaching resources. It would not even be economical to run classes in such schools. Hence, we don’t give permission to run them and suggest that Class 10 students be shifted to other schools so that their academics do not suffer. We need to deliberate on the measures that need to be taken to ensure that no school records nil results,” the official added.
The number of schools, which saw not a single student pass, has increased to 46, from 43 last year. An analysis of the data shows that among schools that recorded no passes, 47.82% were from Bengaluru.
The number of schools that recorded cent per cent passes has also risen, but here also, many schools had very few students. Last year, 1,342 schools bagged this distinction.
This year — as per the results announced on Tuesday — 95 of the 1,626 schools with cent per cent results had nine or less than nine students.
One student
Five of these schools got this distinction as each had only one student.
A school management member said that the cent per cent results can be misleading as several schools do not allow students who are slow learners or who are academically weak to appear for the SSLC examination.
“Many schools fail students in class nine so that the pass percentage in SSLC examination is not affected,” said the school management member. A little over 10% of schools that saw all their students clear the boards were from Bengaluru.