Mangaluru: Aiming to improve the results of the Muslim community in the SSLC examination, Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat has sought the help of religious heads in the district. A letter was written to them after the authorities and elected representatives noted that the performance of Muslim children was poor in the SSLC examination held last year.
“Of the 30,008 students who appeared for the SSLC exam in the district last year, about 5,500 failed. Of the total students who appeared for the exam, 8,860 were Muslim children of whom 2,212 failed! We held a discussion with education experts and studied the situation. We found that 41.87 percent Muslim students failed in the SSLC examination. of this 1,348 were boys and 864 girls," Zilla Panchayat Education and Health Standing Committee Chairman Shahul Hameed, told Deccan Chronicle.
A list was prepared of all the schools which had less than 60 per cent passout and it was revealed that the highest number of these schools were in Muslim dominated areas and the passout percentage was around 25 per cent. "While searching for the reason for poor performance, we found that in some cases, Muslim boys did not have enough time to study after their Madrasa classes. In some cases parents were hardly aware of the importance of SSLC exam and did not follow their children. We also noted that the children too did not give much importance to SSLC and instead participated in events like cricket and football matches and other events even during examination time rather than stress on studies," Hameed said.
“We thought we should involve the community and so decided to take the help of religious heads of the community. On January 19, we wrote a letter to the heads of all mosques and madrasas in our district. We have requested them to guide the youth and their parents to take the SSLC exam seriously and perform well in the examination. We have requested them to speak about this during the Friday discourse. The religious heads have also been requested to postpone religious and social programmes till the completion of examinations. We are sure the leaders will help in our efforts," he added.
With the help of Jamiyyatul Falah, the education department is also providing special training to students in various parts of the district. “This training is not restricted to the Muslim community. The students are taught tips on how to write examinations,” Shahul Hameed said.
