KOCHI: Even as 280 new schools wait for CBSE affiliation in the Trivandrum region comprising Kerala and Lakshadweep this year, the existing CBSE schools are not able to retain their charm with the widespread impression among students and parents that it’s easy to score marks in Class X to Class XII in the state syllabus and thus secure admission for several higher courses, including state engineering.
The numbers have come down from 78,000 students in 2013-14 academic year for Class X in CBSE schools in the region to just over 73,000 in 2014-15 while the number of schools increased from 1,050 to 1,150 in the same period, according to CBSE sources.
In the academic year 2015-16, this has come down to 69,000 students in Class X. The number of students in Class XII in 2013-14 has been 39,500 while in 2014-15 it was 37,500 whereas in 2015-16 it is understood to be around 33,000.
“This is an alarming trend and strikes at the root of the CBSE sector in the state with the state government being hostile to CBSE schools. Several schools are reporting sharp decline in the number of students this time,” said an official in the CBSE sector.
He pointed out that the remarkable difference between the numbers of Class X and Class XII is because of the fact that there are only 650 CBSE schools offering Class XI and Class XII in the state.
“Still these schools can absorb the students passing out from Class X by opening new batches but that is not happening as the trend is in reverse,” he said. The drastic drop in the number of students happened close on the heels of new engineering admission procedure introduced in the state in 2011 which took the marks of Plus-Two along with that of the entrance score. Before that, rank in the entrance was the criterion for engineering admission.
The official said that Kerala scenario is in stark contrast to the situation in other states like Gujarat and Haryana. “There the number schools is low whereas the number of total students is higher than that of Kerala,” he said.
The CBSE schools from the state topped the country in CBSE Class X and Class XII results this year. While there was a pass percentage of 99.77 in Class X from the region against the national percentage of 97.32, it was 95.41 for Class XII in the region against the national pass percentage of 82.
