Post-mortems are done to ascertain the cause of a disaster. They also come in handy to find a scapegoat. The latest has been the analysis of the PUC results. The cause of the drop in pass percentage has now been squarely attributed to the objective type questions in SSLC. And so, three years after the new pattern was introduced, the multiple choice questions have been given a bad name and hanged.

What of all the pluses that were listed when the new pattern of exams was introduced? The questions and grumblings remain muted as everybody assumes that educational policies get drafted by experts and lay people can have no say in it.

But aren’t parents also experts in their own right? Not only do they have a huge stake in the outcome of the policies, they are also the only group that has observed the child, continuously, all his life? As such they would definitely have some important points to make which must be taken into account when policy decisions are made. It is a pity that this right of the parents is never acknowledged. Educational policy matters are never thrown open to public debate before policy changes are announced.

I put forth one suggestion which if implemented, I am convinced, would produce a significant improvement to the PU pass percentage. I qualify as an expert because I have seen through the education of two children. One was in the PU stream and the other CBSE’s Senior Secondary.

More than the syllabus, the big difference between the two, I noticed, was in the discipline expected of the students. This difference comes implied in the two terms: school and college. College symbolises freedom and fun. While School is where one has to be obedient and study. From my personal experience I would say that an important reason why class XII, pass percentage is double that of the PUC is that colleges breed indiscipline.
No doubt PUC also brings to mind that phase in life when kids gets pushed through a punishing regimen of tuitions etc. But this is mostly in the second year and limited to serious students in the Science stream. For the vast number of 16 year old first PU students, right out of the restricted atmosphere of a school, the freedom available in the college turns out to be a heady, destabilising experience. Slipping up in academic performance is but a corollary. 

The best remedy would hence be to remove the college tag for PU course and bring the PU classes into schools. Obviously it is too simplistic a suggestion as there are many more, complex issues involved. The next best, feasible idea then is to take the school atmosphere to the PU colleges.

As step one: introduce uniform for PU students. When children in schools like KVs wear uniform till class XII, why should under-eighteen PU students have the choice to wear ‘colour’ dress to college?

A second necessary move would be to ensure that the college gates remain closed during college hours and students don’t get let off early or have free periods within the college timings. If the PU colleges are made to function in the tight manner of schools there should be no reason for a post results analysis.  

Kamala Balachandran