KOHIMA, June 23 - The Nagaland School Education department has expressed concern over the poor performance of government school students in the High School Leaving Certificate (HSLC) examinations conducted by the State Board of School Education.
Of the 294 government schools comprising 41 government higher secondary schools and 253 government high schools in the State, students from 233 schools appeared for the examinations this year.
Twenty-seven government schools recorded nil pass percentage, while 12 schools tasted hundred per cent success in the HSLC exams, 2018.
The pass percentage in the government schools was 40.77 per cent, registering a decrease of 1.83 per cent than that of last year, Principal Director of the department, Smita Sarangi, said at a review meeting recently.
�The total enrolment of Class X students in government schools was 5,798, of which 4,163 students appeared for the HSLC examination but only 1,738 qualified,� she said.
During the discussions, the participants including district education officers, headmasters, assistant headmasters and teachers in-charge of government schools with nil pass percentage, attributed the poor performance to the lack of sufficient teachers and non-availability of subject teachers to teach Mathematics, Science and English.
Neglect of rural schools and weak foundation of students in government schools were also highlighted in the meeting.
�In rural areas, students and parents are more interested in farming activities than education,� they said.
Transfer of teachers, random upgrade of schools, proxy teachers and teachers resigning mid session were also cited as the other reasons for the poor performance.
After listening to the views aired in the meeting, advisor for school education, KT Sukhalu, said, �Time has come to seriously ponder on the actual problems and improve the performance of government schools.� He emphasised the need to motivate teachers and students equally to improve the quality of education in government schools.
The advisor said that despite appointing 2,700 teachers under the SSA scheme, the quality of education in the elementary and primary sections had gone down instead of improving.
�The government schools not only have nil result, but there is also poor enrolment of students, which is disheartening,� he said. � PTI
