Himachal mulls bringing back annual exam system for state board-run schools
This year, the overall pass percentage for himachal board schools witnessed a significant 14% drop, going down from 93.9% to 79.4%
Himachal Pradesh School Education Board is contemplating doing away with the term examination system and following a system akin to the Central Board of School Examination (CBSE), with teacher organisations batting for its abolition.
Besides, teacher organisations have attributed the poor results to the term. The same comes in the backdrop of an unusually high number of students facing compartments. This year, the overall pass percentage has also witnessed a significant 14% drop, going down from 93.9% to 79.4%.
The State Teachers Association, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Employees Welfare Association have since submitted a memorandum to the board secretary in regards with the proposed change.
Teacher organisations say the system was not well-suited for the geographical location of Himachal that impacts the school calendar, resulting in a failure to allow time for students’ all-round development.
Besides, they noted that two separate term exams for Class 10 and 12 Boards put a financial burden on the children and their parents as they end up paying the examination fee twice in addition to a certain retention fee.
In such a situation, the government is now expected to take a decision on the issue soon.
Teachers bat for annual system
Speaking of the issue, Himachal Rajkiya Prakashak Sangh state president Chittaranjan Kalta said the annual system worked well for most schools in the state and the same reflected in the results too before batting for its reintroduction.
As per the ASER-2022 Himachal Pradesh Rural report, the enrolment of children across all age categories in public schools was significantly higher than in their private counterparts. In government schools, enrolment was highest among girls between the 15-16 age group (82.4%) and boys (77.6%). In the same age range, 3.4% of the children are not enrolled in any school at all.
Notably, Himachal Pradesh had an 82.8% literacy rate — 89.53% male and 75.93% female — per the Census 2011, 8.8% higher than the national average of 74%. The figures were far better than the Census 2001 averages of 85.35% for men, 67.42 for women, and 76.48% overall.
The National Sample Survey Office’s (NSSO) 75th round of surveys on “Household Social Consumption: Education in 2017-18” provides the latest figures. According to the same, in 2017, the research predicted an 86.6% literacy rate for the state, putting the men at 92.9% and women at 80.5%.
All state school’s Pupil Teacher Ratios (PTRs) were compared to those in Haryana, Uttrakhand, Punjab, and the rest of India. When comparing 2020-21 and 2021-22, the state’s secondary school PTR had improved from 7 to 6. When compared to its surrounding states of Punjab, Haryana, and Uttrakhand, as well as the rest of India, Himachal Pradesh scores well on all measures.
The state has also given special focus to the education sector, with the state having 10,758 primary, 1,965 middle, 962 high and 1,999 senior secondary schools in the public sector. The government also runs 166 degree colleges
New India Literacy Programme (NILP), a centrally sponsored scheme for adult education, has also been launched for the 2022-23 to 2026-27 period, with an objective to educate around 89,000 adult illiterate population across the state.
