Lackluster Performance of Secondary Schools & the Need for Soul Searching

To start it well, let me begin by the words of Ancient Greek Philosopher “Aristotle”. He said “The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet”. His words ring true but to paint the picture of education in Paddar or to talk about the lackluster performance of Secondary Schools of Paddar, I want to modify this line a little bit. I would say “The roots of education are sweet, so the fruit is bitter”.

I am saying this because I think the machinery of education in Paddar is not working smooth. It is not that we don’t have enough grease to make it smooth, it is because no one is serious enough to pick up the bottle of grease and apply it to make the working smooth.

No one wants to come out of that self-created comfort zone and this is the reason we are getting bitter results in the end. My point is broad here, please don’t confine it to students and teachers only! I don’t know whether this machinery will be oiled or not but yes recent results of class 10th and 12th have in some way oiled my theory for sure.

The Fall of One the Failure of Many

Let me present you with hard hitting facts. About 352 students appeared in the class 12th exams last year out of which only 14% i.e. 46 students managed to pass the exam. To our shock, the passing out percentage was 41% previous year, which means it fell down three times for this session. That was a story of Higher Secondary School, Paddar. Moving on to high schools; there are 6 high schools in Paddar. Let me tell you that no school, yes, not a single one succeeded in crossing the threshold 40% mark in 2017. Here is a gloomy graph of performance of all the high schools in Paddar.

Atholi, the village where the only Higher Secondary School of the entire Sub-Division Paddar is located stands at 37% pass percentage and topped the list while Ligri with 2% is at the bottom. Only 1 student out of 43 students managed to pass the 10th class exam from Ligri this time. Ruthless results, Aren’t they? With these results do we really think we can go great guns in education? The answer is “absolutely not”.

The Need for Soul Searching

Ask us about the burning demands of Paddar and we have the demand of “College” on the top of our list and why not, since 1986, we have been yearning for college but every time what we have received in return is knuckle sandwich and nothing else.

Now, when our hopes are soaring and we are steadily getting dismal results from our existing institutions of Paddar. Think, if college were there this time. Only 46 students would have been able to take admission into it, how sad! With this sorry picture do you really think we would be able to cajole our incumbent government which has approved 17 colleges of getting one? Do we really deserve? Ponder over it! Have a look.

Now let me present some positive pictures before you. Sujal from Garh Paddar with 89.80% and Saniya from Kijaie with 87% have topped from the Paddar in 10th and 12th classes respectively. Now, ask the people of Paddar a simple question, “What do you think is the reason behind this downfall of results? And my heart aches to know their short and precise reply “Strictness”. Good grief! Accept it or not but this is the harsh reality.

Summary

Every year more than a half of the students from Paddar totally rely on cheating in the exams. Yes, you read that right its “Cheating”. This is the saga of our narrow educated sphere from Paddar. Kudos to the Principal of Higher Secondary School, Atholi Mr. Tirath Lal, who stood against the long prevailing malpractice rampant in Paddar and the role of media which helped in throwing the spanner over it this time. This practice is rampant under the nose, believe it or not. So it was all inevitable to happen.

Now if someone asks you, whether you are happy with these results or not, then, in spite of saying “NO” say “YES” rather, because I think it is the first step towards change and the first step is what we have to endure to cure. Though, it hurts that many have failed but remember no one has achieved greatness without burning the midnight oil.

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