Nagpur division’s pass percentage slumps to 8-year low

Nagpur: Though the passing percentage in SSC fell sharply this year across the state, Nagpur division was the worst hit. For the third year in a row, it settled for the bottom position compared to its eight other peers. At 67.27% passing rate, Nagpur division has fallen back drastically from last year’s 85.97% which was its highest ever.
The year could have not gone any worse for Nagpur divisional board chairman Ravikant Deshpande, who just a few months ago was informed by Nagpur police about an ‘answersheet changing’ scam operational under his jurisdiction.
Even though Nagpur had company when it came to falling percentages, the drastic swing which it witnessed has raised eyebrows. The 18.27 percentage points drop is bigger than any of the other divisional boards. Konkan, though retaining the top position in the state, fell by just around eight percentage points. Nagpur is in fact the only division to be in the ‘60s’ club (67.27%), with the next lowest being Amravati at 71.98%.
While both of Vidarbha’s divisional boards are at the bottom of the table, academicians feel that Nagpur is at more of a disadvantage. A principal, who did not wish to be identified, said, “We have districts like Gadchiroli, Gondia and Bhandara where quality of education in government and aided schools is really bad. Till just a decade ago, these districts were the hub of mass cheating and rampant flouting of rules. In the last few years, the administration has started to crackdown and that has led to lower passing percentage in these districts.”
About the reason for low passing percentage across Maharashtra, state board chairman Shakuntala Kale said, “I cannot give a particular reason behind the decline in success rate. The elimination of internal marks for language and social science subjects may have caused it. The curriculum has also been revised and it was the first exam since then. So, that also may have contributed.”
Kale said that the students were aware about the changed question paper pattern and that Balbharti had put up the model question papers for each subjects much in advance for students to practice. “The question paper is such that it will not test the memory power of the student alone. It is more on application of what a student has learned in class and how it could be applied,” said Kale.