Editorial»
Stretch marks
JUL 03 -
The results of the proverbial iron gate of Nepali education system are out. The pass percentage among the regular students this year: 64.31 percent, four percentage points down from last year when a record 68.47 percent regular students had cleared the exams. The relatively poor results this year is being dissected in many ways. Some blame has been apportioned to the growing political instability and the insecure climate for school students. But two other factors are believed to have had the biggest influence on the results.
If the Office of Controller Examinations is to be believed, the climb down in pass percentage is a direct result of strict monitoring of SLC exams this year. But this claim flies in the face of available evidence. At no time in the past have so many incidents of cheating been reported from so many places.
The other reason being cited is an increase in the
number of private students, the cantoned PLA ex-combatants among them. Traditionally, out-of-school private students have not done as well as the students who attend
regular schools. But again, a slight increase in the number of private students is unlikely to have cut down the pass percentage by four points.
It is as likely that this year's results reflect the plain law of averages, no more. It is notable that the pass percentage
had been steadily inching up in the last five years before
hitting an all-time high in 2009. Barring a significant improvement in school education system in any given year, it was bound to come down at some point. It would thus be a better idea to analyse the trend of the results over a period of time rather than try to draw any definite conclusions from the results of any one year.
Traditionally, Nepali students perform poorly in English, mathematics and science. (A similar trend is visible this
year too.) Unless concrete measures are taken to improve student performance in these 'hard' subjects, it is unrealistic to expect the pass percent to keep growing beyond a certain point. Interestingly, the 2010 pass percentage could not be pushed up despite grace marks for 17,000 students who had initially failed a subject.
While there is nothing wrong in giving a deserving student a few grace marks, all too often in the past the focus has been to push through as many students as possible through the 'iron gate' to show for the non-existent progress in the education system. After the better than expected results last year, many educationists had expressed their reservations about the 'inflation' in pass percentage and overall marks.
We believe the focus should be on improving the quality of school education rather than passing students through various alternative means. Making pass percentage the sole criteria to evaluate the success of an education system is likely to be counterproductive for the educators, the students as well as for the preparation of an able future manpower.
Posted on: 2010-07-04 08:18
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