In a year, 35% high school students in Srinagar out of Govt school system

At least 35 percent of the students enrolled in grade 9th in 2017 went out of the government school system a year later in Srinagar, indicating a challenging trend for the school education department.

Official data accessed by Greater Kashmir reveals student enrollment in government schools of Srinagar decreased from 2290 class 9th students in 2017 to 1511 in class 10th of 2018, a decrease of 35 percent.

   

It was not clear if the remaining 779 students dropped out of school without joining grade 10th in 2018 or they went elsewhere.

Director school education Kashmir (DSEK) G N Itoo refused to comment saying he has not gone through the official data submitted by the chief education officer (CEO) of Srinagar.

“I will comment only after going through the official figures,” Itoo said.

According to official figures around 2440 students were enrolled in class 9th of 2017 out of which 2290 appeared in the annual exams and 1825 were declared as passes by the State Institute of Education (SIE) Kashmir.

As already reported by this newspaper, students with potential to learn but fail to qualify the annual class 9th exams are supposed to be promoted to class 10th after undergoing remedial classes in their respective schools during the winter break.

Only 1511 students were enrolled in class 10th in 104 government-run high and higher secondary schools of Srinagar district in 2018. Out of them 1229 appeared as regular candidates in class 10th annual 2018 examination and 756 were declared as qualified by JK Board of School Education (BOSE).

The decrease in the enrollment as the students move from class 9th to 10th has deflated the government claims of improvement in student enrollment in government-run schools.

“The government policy states that if 2290 students of class 9th appeared in annual exams in 2017, the same number of students should be promoted to the class 10th. But the data has shown a decrease in the enrollment which is a cause of concern for the department,” an official in the education department said, adding the reasons for this decline need to be ascertained. 

Earlier the school education department directed heads of government high schools to submit enrolment data of class 9th and 10th for 2017 and 2018 to assess the number of students kept away from appearing in class 10th exams.

The directions were given after Greater Kashmir reported that around 13000 students from government schools were illegally “stopped” from appearing in the exams as regular students in 2018 class 10th exams, so that the performance of government schools appears better at the time of declaration of results.

The figures clearly suggest not all students who appeared in class 9th exams have continued to class 10th in the following year. 

Sample this: In 2017, Higher Secondary School (HSS) Gund Hassi Bhat enrolled 70 students in class 9th out of which 68 appeared in the annual exams and 63 passed. In 2018, only 56 students were enrolled in the school in class 10th out of which 51 appeared in exams and 25 were declared successful by JKBOSE.

Similarly, in Boys High School New Theed, 11 students were enrolled in 9th class in 2017 but only two students continued into class 10th in 2018. The school produced zero percent result in class 10th exams.

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