No-fail policy of Right to Education Act clears its first test
TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: The first SSC examinations, for students who were promoted upto Class VIII under the no-fail policy of the Right to Education Act, threw up no surprises with 85.34 per cent of regular students who appeared, passing the examination.
A record 18,509 regular students appeared this year owing to the bigger classes, which resulted from the no-fail policy, of which 15,795 passed, proving pundits, who had predicted a lower pass percentage due to the no-fail policy, wrong. The Goa Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education declared the results Thursday.
Girls once again scored better than boys, albeit this time only marginally, by recording a pass percentage of 85.49 as compared to boys who secured a pass percentage of 85.19%.
More boys (9,302) answered the exam, in comparison to girls (9,207).
The exempted candidates secured a pass percentage of 45.87. While girls scored a pass percentage of 47.63, boys scored 44.25 per cent. 10,060 boys and 972 girls answered the exam in the exempted category.
The overall pass percentage, if one includes exempted candidates, is 81.43.
The pass percentage touched above 80% after, disturbingly dipping to 73.38 per cent last year signals a return to the norm. In 2009, the pass percentage was 77.00, in 2010 it was 83.42 and in 2011 it was 86.05.
As many as 86 schools, many of them rural and government, scored a pass percentage of above 95%. Two of these schools ~ St Xavier’s Academy in Old Goa and Lokvishwas Pratishthan’s school in Dhavali Ponda also scored over 95%.
As many as 6,948 students availed of sports merit marks with 746 of them passing the exam because of these merit marks, including two repeaters.
Addressing the media, chairman of the GBSHSE Jose Remedios Rebello said that the results did not throw up any surprises “contrary to what many pundits had predicted.”
“With this being the first batch, which are a product of the no-fail policy of the RTE, pundits had predicted a lower pass percentage, but it was not to be, as we have seen,” Rebello said.
Grade sheets will be made available to the students on Friday (today) onwards at their respective schools. The last date for submitting applications for re-evaluation, verification in the presence of parent or guardian or for photocopies of answer books is June 3. The last date for application for verification in absentia/presentia is June 24. The Board has asked all students to route their applications through their respective schools.
