On the other hand, the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examination results of the Goa Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education went by just 0.6 per cent when compared to 2020, the year that the last public exam was conducted. In 2021, due to the pandemic, the results were declared based on internal assessment and resulted in pass percentage of over 99 per cent, which can be termed an aberration. Yet, given that the examination system is now much easier, there could have been an improvement in the overall pass percentage.
The special evaluation scheme had a first term examination of entirely multiple choice questions based on 50 per cent of the portion completed and a second term examination of the balance 50 per cent portion and the questions were subjective in nature, while internal assessment was given 20 per cent weightage. This is unlike the past when the board exam was subjective in nature and students had to be prepared with the entire year’s portion. The system is definitely much easier for the students.
Very interestingly, this year the largely rural talukas have performed better, with Dharbandora taluka reporting the highest pass percentage of 96.44 per cent and three schools from the taluka securing 100 per cent results. Dharbandora was followed by Pernem, Sattari, Ponda, Salcete and Bicholim. Among these, except for Salcete, the others are less developed. On the other hand, the more developed Tiswadi, Bardez and Mormugao did not figure among the top talukas in performance. Notably, Pernem and Bicholim talukas topped the list of 100 per cent school scores with 16 schools each from the talukas achieving this. It brings into question of whether the long queue for admissions in urban schools where the quality of teaching is expected to be better is really just an impression that parents have. So, does it really matter in which school a child is studying?
The results show another interesting trend, where government schools are reporting 100 per cent results. This year it was 35 government schools that achieved this result, the same as in 2020, but higher than the previous years when in 2018, there were 21 government schools achieving that score, and 31 in 2019. Is this a reflection of the improved quality of teaching in government schools? This is a subject worth looking into as in the past government schools have not been known to have any high standards of education. Of course, private and aided schools have scored much better, but then the number of these is also much higher than the government ones.
What emerges from these results is that quality school education has reached all the corners of the State, where the child in the remotest rural area is in a position to compete with the child in the developed urban areas. That is an achievement by itself. Yet, and this is interesting, two weeks ago, when the Class XII results were declared, it was Tiswadi taluka that had the highest pass percentage of 95.92, while Quepem had the lowest of 86.23, with Mormugao just higher with 87.48. The other talukas had scores in the 90s. There appears to be an imbalance here, with the developed talukas performing better in the Higher Secondary School examinations.
The good performance of the rural schools is to be commended. This is so different from the time some years ago when city school performed well and the village schools lagged far behind. The result therefore should spur students and teachers in the less developed talukas of the State to do even better in the future.
