Delhi government schools have outperformed the private schools in the Class 12 examination conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). Year after year, since the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) took charge of the city governance, the students of government schools have outshined the private school students. Due credit has gone directly to the Directorate of Education, teachers and students.
However, on June 2, news portal The Print decided to “delve deeper into the data” and found out a “filtering method”. The headline of the report said that government schools beat private ones because it fails 50 per cent of its students in Class 9 itself.
The Print has based its analysis on this data. On the outset itself, however, one fails to understand how failing or passing 50 per cent students in Class 9 is going to affect the eventual Class 12 results. The students first take up the Class 10 board examination. It should follow that this would instead have an immediate and radical effect on Class 10 board pass percentage.
Also, Class 12 copies are checked by CBSE, while Class 9 assessments are done by school teachers. The results of Class 9 are declared in March, which is way before CBSE declares the Class 12 results. Hence, the analogy that an exact number of students passing in Class 12 are promoted from Class 9 to Class 10 seems odd.
Let’s “delve deeper into the data” once more to understand whether failing 50 per cent students was a strategy used by the AAP government to enhance the Class 12 results. Also, as accused, whether this alleged data manipulation is the reason behind Delhi government schools’ success stories.
A complete graph
From 2006-07, Delhi government schools saw phenomenal growth in the pass percentage in Class 10 board examinations. In 2007, the pass percentage increased from 59.7 per cent to 71.1 per cent. Post 2009, it never dropped below 89 per cent — until this year. Between 2010-11 and 2012-13, the pass percentage was as high as 99 per cent in Delhi government schools. Note that in 2011, the Right to Education Act was implemented and the no-detention policy (NDP) came into force.
This “filtering” analogy implies that when the Class 9 pass percentage reduced, the Class 10 results either stayed the same or improved, because apparently only good students were being promoted to Class 10.
Basic data from the Department of Education doesn’t corroborate this.
Look at the pass percentages data for Class 9 students accessed by Newslaundry. It was 95.1 per cent in 2011-12. This started falling: 68.7 per cent in 2012-13, and then rock bottom to 50.8 per cent in 2015-16.
When Delhi government schools promoted 95 per cent of its Class 9 students to Class 10 in 2011-2012, 99 per cent of these students cleared the CBSE board exams in 2012-13. In 2012-13, when these numbers radically dropped to 68 per cent in Class 9, the 2013-2014 Class 10 results witnessed a marginal drop and recorded 98.8 per cent results.
In subsequent years—2013-14, 2014-15, 2015-16, 2016-17, when Class 9 results were dismal—Class 10 results witnessed only marginal drops. In 2015-16, it dropped to 89 per cent.
This year’s Class 10 results recorded the worst performance in the past 10 years; only 69 per cent of students managed to clear the Class 10 CBSE exams.
Clearly, despite the said filtering process in place, it failed to affect the Class 10 board exams. In fact, the results are showing a declining trend. So then, how was it was concluded that Class 12 results were improving because 50 per cent of students failed in Class 9?
Importantly, The Print also mentions 2013-14 and 2014-2015 showing the dip in pass percentage. AAP first came to power in 2013—that too only for 49 days. In that case, if someone wants to put the blame on those in the power, then it should be then Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung.
In its second stint, AAP clinched Delhi in February 2015, only days before the batch of 2014-2015 had their exams.
Does a lower Class 9 pass percentage connect to the no-detention policy?
“The no-detention policy (NDP) came into effect in 2011,” says a consultant to the DoE, Delhi government, on conditions of anonymity. “The first batch of students who joined the Delhi government schools in Class 6 that year, faced written exams, with tough marking scheme, for the first time only in 2014-15 [when they reached Class 9]. And you can see the impact on that year’s pass percentage.” Once the NDP came into effect, the numbers in Class 9 results dwindled consistently after 2012-13.
Atishi Marlena, AAP leader and former advisor to the DoE who is hailed for bringing reforms in the Delhi government schools, also points fingers at the NDP. “Earlier also the children in schools were not learning, and after the NDP was introduced, the situation has become worse,” she tells Newslaundry. “Whatever accountability that existed in the system has gone away.” She further says the situation worsened with every passing year as batches of students spent more time under the no-detention policy.
In 2016, when Class 9 results hit rock bottom, the AAP government had effectively completed one year in the office. Education minister Manish Sisodia spoke on the record about the crisis the Delhi government schools were going through.
The Delhi government circular issued on June 29, 2016, recognised the “serious challenge” of a large chunk of failing students in Class 9 and rolled out a map to address these issues. A new academic plan called Chunauti 2018 was introduced. “That year, our findings showed that 45 per cent of Class 9 students were struggling to read, write and do basic mathematics,” says the DoE consultant.
The Delhi government accepted that the poor results in Class 9 were largely due to four reasons: the NDP; years of accumulated learning deficit; pressure on the teachers to complete the syllabi leading to inability to bring weaker children to the desired level; and huge variances in basic skills like reading and writing within a single classroom.
Under the Chunauti programme, the students were regrouped. Class 6 students were regrouped based on the basic learning level. For Classes 7, 8 and 9, the scores of summative assessments became the basis for the regrouping of students.
The programme was aimed to reduce the fail percentage and enhance fundamental learning. For example, students who had failed Class 9 twice or more were categorised under the “Modified Patrachar Scheme of Examination 2017”—called the VISHWAS section—to take their Class 10 board exam. This policy was “proposed to ensure retention of children who have failed in class 9th [sic] repeatedly and to minimise the possibility of their dropout,” the circular read.
However, the DoE achieved little success. According to the DoE sources, while about 50,000 students took up the Patrachar exams, only 2,000-3,000 students could clear it. This year, the government made another attempt to get students to take their exams through an open school—the National School of Open Learning, as it is comparatively easier than the CBSE exam.
The 2016 circular also asked principals of schools to ensure that “only the most motivated teachers are deployed for the weakest students”. (Read more here.)
Apparently, the policy which was categorised as the “filtering process” was brought in to improve the results and performances of students. After the introduction of Chunauti, in 2016-17 and 2017-18, Class 9 results showed marginal improvement.
However, Marlena emphasises that “you see a marginal improvement in the pass percentage but the number of students who are taking up exams of Class 9 are swelling up. While the percentage looks stemmed, the number of students who were passing these exams had increased.”
She says that had the government not introduced the remedial class—an intervention brought at Class 9 for the first time—the data would have dipped further.
Has the larger picture changed in Delhi?
According to data accessed by Newslaundry, the pass percentages of Class 11 students of Delhi government schools are as follows: 62 per cent in 2014-15, 73 per cent in 2015-16, and 73 per cent in 2016-17.
According to reports, the Class 12 results of Delhi government schools in 2018 were the best in the past 20 years. However, since 2008, the pass percentage for government schools has not gone below 85 per cent. This year, it also outperformed the private schools for the third time in a row.
But the results of Class 10 show alarming trends, raising question marks on the Delhi government’s education success stories. However, Marlena refuses to accept it as a setback. “There is no comparison between this year’s results and last year’s result—as this the first time board exams were conducted after a decade,” Marlena says. The CBSE has junked the Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) and has reintroduced board exams this year. Marlena adds, “We don’t have any plans to improve the Class 10 results. Our plan is to improve Classes 6 to 10 collectively. This is the reason we are running programmes like Mission Chunauti and Buniyad and in fact this year, we have convinced MCD schools to run the Mission Buniyad in their schools.”
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