Disappointing SLC result

REPUBLICA

The School Leaving Certificate (SLC) exam result is out with a disappointing pass percentage. Only 55.5 percent students passed this year, about 9 percentage points less than last year. This is the second year in a row that the SLC pass percentage has slid. Last year, only 64 percent students got through the Iron Gate, four percentage points less than the previous year. The 5 grace marks given to the students by the Office of the Controller of Examination, which helped many students obtain the pass mark, belies the actual pass percentage. More than 17,000 students benefited from the grace marks— meaning only about 51 percent students actually passed the SLC exam on their own. That one in every two students failed the exam is less a reason for celebration and more a matter of concern.

The state spends about 17 percent of its budget in the education sector. In nominal terms, the education budget may still sound meager but as a share of total spending it’s decent. Does the result justify spending? We still don’t have disaggregated pass percentage between private and public schools. Once we have that number, it will further expose the poor performance of public schools. The major question of concern at this point, however, is: Why has the pass percentage begun to slide after a robust growth for several years until last year? The answer is not simple as is reflected in the conflicting arguments of education experts and officials at the Ministry of Education. The official argument is that this year the exams were held in a far stricter environment compared to the past. Hence, the dismal result. Maybe, but experts disagree.

We don’t want to get into this debate, for we are afraid that we don’t have a lot to contribute to it. But there cannot be a dispute on one thing—this drop in the SLC pass percentage of public schools should be reversed. That needs increasing the quality of teachers and teaching methodology and some targeted investments on trainings, teaching materials and resources. But this dismal result should also inform our ongoing and future debates about the public sector education. Two immediate issues come to our mind. First, teachers’ unions are demanding for permanent positions to the teachers hired on a temporary basis.

We want to ask the unions: Going by the current results, do these teachers deserve promotion and permanent position or a punishment? Teachers appointed on the basis of political connections with complete disregard for merit will only contribute to the further deterioration of education quality. Second, Maoist party and teachers association affiliated with it often demand abolishment of private education and promotion of public education. If you don’t have enough resources and ideas to improve the quality of existing public schools, why do you want to convert the private schools into public ones in the first place?