The collective performance of the state’s government schools in this year’s CBSE examinations is very poor. This year’s pass percentage of 41.79 is the lowest in the last three years. As usual, the education department has blamed lack of subject teachers, especially of mathematics and science, for the poor performance. This may hold true to a certain extent, but it is kind of becoming repetitive. Every year, lack of subject teachers is cited as the reason for the poor performance in the board exams. If the department is aware of such problems, why doesn’t it take the initiative to resolve them?
The department should be holding hectic parleys with the political bosses to tackle the crisis of unavailability of subject teachers. When the board examination results are out, everyone expresses concern over the poor performance, but after some time they forget about it. This is becoming a never-ending cycle. There has to be a proper study to find out the factors responsible for it. The parents also should be involved in the process. It is a known fact that most of the students studying in government-run schools are from poor economic background. As their parents cannot afford to send them to private schools, they attend government schools. These parents often tend to give less importance to the education of their children. For them, the priority remains to earn enough to live a decent life. Their role will be crucial in order to improve the performance of government schools. Further, there should be equal distribution of teachers, especially of subject teachers, across the state.