CHENNAI: In six years, the pass percentage in government schools has improved to an extent wherein nearly one in every four schools has now achieved 100 per cent results in SSLC exams.
Of 5,463 government schools as many as 1,557 schools (28.5%) have achieved 100% results.
Though the government schools were more or less the same in the year 2011-12, only 362 schools had got the full results. The total pass percentage also was only about 80 percent.
This year the total pass percentage of the government schools is 91.59 percent, which is significant considering that the majority of the government schools are in rural areas.
So, what has changed in the last six years in government schools to come up with such an impressive performance? "Now, there is more awareness among the teachers and headmasters about equipping the students for the board exams. The teachers are giving individual attention to students. Many teachers are coming forward to take special classes even on Sundays," said R.C. Saraswati, headmistress, Government Girl's Higher Secondary School, Ashok Nagar.
Though the school just missed centum results by one percent, the students have performed impressively with 83 students scoring above 450 marks in the exam and 137 students scoring from 400 to 450. The topper in the school A.Navya has scored 494 out of 500.
Government Model Higher Secondary School in Saidapet has got 100% results as all the 54 students cleared the exam. From 45 percent in 2012-13, the school has achieved 100 percent now.
K.P. Raja Kennedy, headmaster, said, "Poor students are studying in our school. We conducted tuitions until 9 pm in the evening as the students did not have a good environment in their homes. Some voluntary organisations helped us with snacks and other items. Our teachers were also very cooperative."
Earlier, there used to be a lot of vacancies in the government schools which has reflected in poor results. "After the appointment of 20,000 graduate teachers in government schools in 2013, the results have leapfrogged. Subject-wise teachers are available in all the schools now," said S.Kannappan, director, RMSA.
The department also took efforts to improve the performance of the government schools by providing them study materials. "We also gave training to teachers on how to improve the pass percentage. With the hard work of teachers, headmasters and education officials the results are started to coming," he said.
Teachers happy about scribe changing facility
The teachers of school of blind expressed happiness regarding scribes, as the process was made much easier by the Tamil Nadu government, this year.
"Now, scribes are allotted two days before the exam and the whole information about them is provided online. A day before the exam, scribes also attend orientation class," said a teacher.
Also, the facility to change scribes in the middle of the examination has made it easier. Topper Farida had to change her scribes three times and the chief examiner carried out the process quickly.
