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COVER STORY |
POOR EXAMINATION RESULTS More than two-thirds of the students who appeared for this year's School Leaving Certificate (SLC) examinations failed. Many schools in rural areas could not pass even a single student. While the authorities say the dismal outcome was the result of the changed syllabus and stricter checking, many see fundamental flaws in our education system. As billions of rupees have gone wasted thanks to the high failure rate, there is growing concern about how to improve the pass percentage in the years ahead By SANJAYA DHAKAL On the morning of July 16, when FM radio stations broke the news of the publication of School Leaving Certificate (SLC) results, newspaper stalls were readying themselves for the hordes of students that were about to descend on them. By midday, thousands of hearts across the country were to be broken. Two-thirds of the 213,807 examinees who appeared in the exam in April could not cross the "iron gate"-- as the exam is commonly known among students. Last year, 45 percent of the examinees had passed the SLC. This year the pass rate came down by almost 15 percent, reaching 31.62 percent. Generally, the SLC pass rate hovers around the range of 40 to 50 percent. But this year, the result was particularly disturbing. Of the total examinees, 160,123 students sat for the regular examinations, while the rest were in the exempted group. In the week that followed the publication of the SLC results, newspapers were flooded with news of dismal performances of schools in several districts.
In Nawalparasi district, only 22 percent of the examinees managed to get through. This forced the higher secondary schools (ten plus two) there to close down, fearing lack of students, said reports. Similar was the case in the mid-western region. According to a news report, only one-fifth of the students passed in the region. There, too, the higher secondary schools face the problem of having to run empty classes. Likewise, Dolakha district witnessed only 12 percent of its students get past the SLC. In another example, the principal of a secondary school in Ramechhap district quit after all his SLC examinees failed. Many schools recorded a zero pass rate. Nuwakot district, too, boasted of three such "nil" schools. Not to be outdone, Dhading district chipped in with 10 such schools. These outlying districts apart, even the reputable schools of Kathmandu valley found the SLC a tough nut to crack this year. Many boarding schools in the valley have already complained of lapses in evaluation procedures. "This is a near disaster," said educationist Min Bahadur Bista. "Such poor results will invite socio-political crisis in the country." Agrees Babu Ram Pokharel, principal at the VS Niketan School. "The authorities must take some steps to bring the students who have failed to the mainstream." Why So Low? Several theories have been advanced for the failure of a whopping two-thirds of the examinees. While the authorities claim strict evaluation and high-standard courses weeded out poor-performing students, others believe it was the result of poor planning preceding the overhaul in the examination system. This year, the SLC board had introduced a new syllabus. "The new courses covered some chapters that were earlier taught only in Class 11. In that, the courses were tough," said Pokharel. The total marks of the examinations were increased from 700 to 800 this year. Likewise, a system of coding and decoding the answer papers was introduced. Teachers were called to check papers in particular evaluation centers. Previously, papers used to be distributed to the houses of senior teachers. Other reasons were the lack of competence among most teachers to teaching the new course. "There was no training provided to teachers," complained Pokharel. Another new system introduced in this year's SLC was the provision of multiple question papers. "The cases of cheating were also checked strictly," said Yadu Poudel, an officer at the Office of the Controller of Examination (OCE), giving reasons for the huge number of failures.
Moreover, last year witnessed frequent strikes and bandhs organized by political parties and student activists. The insurgency raging in some parts of the country, too, disturbed the normal functioning of schools there. Although the country has made some remarkable progress in education, recent incidents of growing political violence and strikes have come as a serious impediment to the smooth functioning of this sector. Dearth of clear-cut government policies is not helping the matter either. While the situation of the country's public schools is deplorable, to say the least, the private ones, too, are feeling the heat. "This is a very unfortunate situation. It is true that in a democratic system of governance everybody has the right to protect their interests. But the tendency to target schools in any kind of strikes will prove fatal. We urge everybody concerned to refrain from disturbing the academic atmosphere," said Umesh Shrestha, senior vice-president of Private and Boarding Schools Organization Nepal (PABSON) and founding principal of Little Angel's School. Thousands of schools across the country were forced to close down for a whole week in mid-December last year as well as mid-April this year at the call of a pro-Maoist student organization. The ANNFSU (Revolutionary) had called the shutdown in support of its 15-point demand that included free school education, nationalization of private schools, making Sanskrit education optional and ending the practice of singing the national anthem in schools. "We see that there is a gradual erosion in the school system as the teaching-learning atmosphere is being destroyed," said educationist Min Bahadur Bista. The cumulative effect of all these factors could have resulted in such a low pass rate. There also was a general feeling of despondency among the students thanks to such atmosphere. In the history of SLC, this is not the first time that so many students have failed. In fact, the pass rate at one point used to be as low as 20 to 30 percent. But over the last few years, the pass rate had gradually improved. This year the low pass rate became remarkable as it fell down by as much as 15 percent compared to the last year. Investment Loss Nepal has made tremendous progress in educating its citizens over the past five decades. The general literacy rate has jumped from 2 percent in 1950 to 53 percent (government figures) today. Government investment in the sector has increased considerably, reaching around 15 percent of the total annual budget. More than five million students are enrolled in primary- and secondary-level schools. Enrolment in higher education, too, is growing by an average of nine percent a year. Despite such headway, the sector is still mired in problems. From strikes and political intervention to insurgency and an abiding sense of insecurity, the education sector is facing assaults from various fronts. Expenditure on education was 1.4 percent of GDP and 9.4 of total government expenditure (TGE) in 1980/81. This rose to 2.6 percent of GDP and 13.1 percent of TGE in 1998/99. "Of the total expenditure on education, 45 percent is for primary and non-formal education, 32 percent for secondary, 6 percent for technical and vocational, and 16 percent for tertiary education," states a report by the World Bank. Over the last decade alone, investment in education has swollen. In 1990, the government spent Rs 301 million in the regular budget and Rs 1.22 billion in the development budget for education. The budget has now increased by ten fold. Experts say poor SLC results will have a big impact in terms of wastage of investment. According to a study by Min Bahadur Bista - under the secondary education project funded by the Asian Development Bank and Nepalese government - the government spends Rs 1,816 per year per student in public schools. Besides government investment, parents have to spend an additional Rs 7,742 per year per student in Kathmandu valley, Rs 4,521 per year per student in Terai and Rs 4,760 per year per student in the hills to bear the cost of extra fees, stationery items, uniforms and tiffin, among other things. These investment are true only for public schools. If private schools are considered, the total spending is at least four times more, said Bista. If the cost of education is multiplied by the number of students who failed in the SLC, one is likely to get a tremendous figure of investment that has gone in vain. Way Out As the investment in the education sector seems to be going in vain because of the huge number of high-school failures, it is vital that the authorities roll up their sleeves and do something concrete. Any reform in the examination process should be preceded by thorough study of the situation. Rash and random reform measures will not work. Most experts lay the blame for the poor SLC results squarely on the government, saying it put the cart before the horse. "They just imposed reforms without finding out what the ground realities were like," said Pokharel. He cited the example of the change in the course. "While the government changed the course, it did not make any attempt to find out whether the available teachers were competent enough to teach well." While reforms are necessary to improve the quality of education, they ought to be imposed gradually and after thorough consideration. The immediate problem before the government is to address the situation of the students who have failed in the SLC. If not attended to properly, some of these students could even fall prey to violent elements. One thing the government can do is engage these students in vocational training, which would help to make them self-reliant. Supplementary exams should also be taken soon to give them a second chance. As high failure rates add up to the number of unemployed youths and is a serious investment loss, the authorities must come out with plans to improve the situation soon. Otherwise, as Bista predicted, low pass rates will invite a crisis, which would affect the wider socio-political sphere. ‘Vocational And Technical Education Is More Important’ — Babu Ram Pokharel BABU RAM POKHAREL is the principal of the VS Niketan School. About 80 percent of the students of the school managed to pass in first division this year. He spoke to SANJAYA DHAKAL on issues related to the low pass rate in this year's SLC. Excerpts:
What do you think was the reason behind such a big failure in this year's SLC? There are three main reasons for low pass rate this year. Firstly, the syllabus this year was a new one. Unlike in previous years, the new courses covered standard chapters. Some of the chapters even included courses that were earlier taught only in Class 11. As it was the first year of the new course, SLC examinees had no idea about the question patterns. Secondly, the teachers of schools that run on subsidies in rural areas were not competent enough to teach the new courses. The government had not trained or prepared these teachers on the new course. Thirdly, the last year saw frequent disturbances in the academic environment. There were many strikes and bandhs. This constricted the number of working days for schools. Though the minimum days of working is set at 180 per year, some schools could not even teach for 100 days last year. Naturally, these schools could not teach the whole course. As such a large number of students have failed, what do you think should be done to help them? The students who have failed are feeling that their future is dark. This is a serious situation. The concerned authorities must make necessary arrangements to allay the depression that could set in among them. Supplementary examinations should be held immediately to help them. This could be one positive message for them as it would help them not lose one precious year. Otherwise, these students will get frustrated. The government had introduced new reform measures in this year's SLC. How did you find them? Though the provision of making teachers evaluate students' papers in particular evaluation centers seems to be a good idea, there is a downside to it, too. Senior and competent teachers may not want to take the trouble of visiting the evaluation centers to check the papers. If papers are not evaluated by competent teachers, the result could be disastrous. Besides, I see the government's poor handling as the main factor behind the dismal results. There is absolutely no supervision and monitoring. Model questions were not given and there was no training for teachers about the new course. It is said that Nepalese students need vocational training more than general education. What do you say? That is true. Vocational and technical education is more important for the country at present. Such training/education will attract students from middle and lower strata of the society. Vocational training will prove to be more useful in life. It gives rise to self-employment. In fact, it would be great if the authorities introduced special vocational/technical education packages to engage the students who have failed in SLC. ‘New Packages Should Be Introduced’ — KUL BAHADUR BASNET KUL BAHADUR BASNET is the director of the Accreditation Division at the Center for Technical Education and Vocational Training (CTEVT). The center has been providing training as well as giving affiliation to private-sector groups interested in running vocational training in the country. He spoke to SANJAYA DHAKAL about the situation of technical and vocational education. Excerpts: What kind of training does CTEVT provide? We have been providing training as well as providing affiliation to private colleges to teach disciplines like staff nurse, health assistant, diploma in agriculture, diploma in computer, diploma in surveying and so on. Mostly our students are SLC pass students. But in remote areas, we provide training to SLC failed students, too. We give affiliation to private sector on polytechnical subjects. What is the duration of your training? It depends on the course. Some run for 15 days while others go up to one year or more. Our subjects are skill intensive. If the private sector approaches us for affiliation, we study the subject it wants to teach and see if that is saleable in market. Only then, we give accreditation to the subject. Mostly we approve market-oriented packages. At present, we have the capacity to teach 10,000 SLC-level students a year. In fact, 1,500 students are studying in the diploma level in different private institutes affiliated to us. More than 150 private institutes are affiliated to us at present. How important do you think is technical and vocational education to our students? Technical and vocational education is very important. It brings down unemployment, especially among youths. But, as our students have a white-collar mentality, there has to be an attitudinal change among them before they can reap the benefits of vocational education. How many of your students have found jobs? Earlier when only the CTEVT was around to provide vocational training, we used to conduct follow-up studies intensively. We had found that most of our students made use of the training. But now the picture is not so clear, as many private institutes have entered the scene. The information about the private students are not available. Even then, we can claim that the vocationally trained youths find jobs more easily. This year a large number of SLC students have failed. Does the CTEVT have any plans to rope in them? It is up to the government to provide us with resources. The authorities need to introduce special packages to teach such students. It is not a crime to fail an examination. When a student's academic road is blocked, another way must be opened, otherwise they will become frustrated. ‘It Is A Near Disaster’ — MIN BAHADUR BISTA MIN BAHADUR BISTA is a well-known education expert in the country. He spoke to SANJAYA DHAKAL about the poor SLC results and the consequent wastage of investment in the education sector. Excerpts: How do you find the recent results of the SLC in which two-thirds of the students have failed? It is a near disaster. This disaster will affect the education sector as well as the society. Such huge failures is bound to invite socio-political crisis in the country. What is the reason for such poor results? This year's so-called new SLC had introduced new curriculum as well as new evaluation system. But the result has exposed the problems in curriculum design. The result is the reflection of poor examination reform, poor planning, poor teaching and poor facilities. The recent result has underlined the need for serious analysis of public education sector. What effect will this poor result have on the government and on individual students? The poor results will have far-reaching consequences. As far as individual students are concerned, they will be distraught and frustrated. Their academic growth will be retarded. On the other hand, such failures will not help the government either. Take for example a soap factory. What happens to the factory if it is able to produce only 30 soap bars against the target of producing 100. The same thing will happen in case of the government. It will be tremendous loss in terms of investment and resources. So many thousands of hours of teaching will be lost. What is the solution to the problem? There has to be a deep analysis of the education system. Reforms are also necessary but they should be based on the situation and circumstances. Above all, the government needs to give more attention to the sector - not only in terms of investment but also in terms of supervision, monitoring and so on. ‘This Year's Strict Evaluation Resulted In Quality Filtering’ — YADU POUDEL YADU POUDEL is an officer at the Office Of the Controller of Examination, Sano Thimi. The office is responsible for conducting the SLC examination as well as evaluating and publishing the results. He spoke to SANJAYA DHAKAL about this year's results. Excerpts: Why have so many students failed this year? First, we had a new course this year. The system of coding and decoding was also introduced while evaluating. Moreover, we used parallel question papers, which proved effective in checking the cases of cheating. Don't you think the pass rate was disturbingly low? Although huge number of students failed, those who passed this year should be considered quality students. The strict evaluation resulted in quality filtering of students. In which subjects did most students fail? We don't have the full data. We are working on it. But preliminary scrutiny shows that most students failed in compulsory subjects like mathematics, English and science. Will your office take supplementary examination for students who failed? Yes, we are conducting supplementary education sometime in September for those students who have failed in (up to) two subjects. Among the 69 percent students who failed, 10 to 12 percent students will be able to take advantage of the supplementary examination. |
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