The guidelines also mandate department officials to conduct weekly visits to schools on Fridays.
Amid concerns over low pass percentage in the Class 10 (SSLC) exam, the Department of School Education & Literacy has issued a 29-point guideline to improve the results.
In 2024, the SSLC pass percentage was 54 per cent but rose to 73 per cent after the government liberally awarded grace marks to 1.7 lakh students. In 2025, though the pass percentage increased to 62 per cent, the results were subpar.
As per the fresh guidelines, schools should finish the syllabus by December 2025, conduct special classes and convene parent-teachers’ meetings once in two months for 10th standard students.
Social media addiction
As per the rules, teachers should speak to students twice and warn them about the ill effects of mobile phone and social media addiction.
“Through the Student Achievement Tracking System (SATS), the classwise attendance of SSLC students has to be tracked each day. Through the “early warning system” teachers should visit the houses of regular absentees or those absent for over seven days. They must ascertain the reasons for absenteeism and ensure that the student returns to the school,” the guidelines say.
Schools have also been directed to analyse the progress of students through unit tests, conduct “wake up calls” through teachers each morning to ensure that students are studying, and provide an hour each week for sports as a stressbuster for students.
The department has also decided to recognise underperforming schools. The deputy directors (administration) at the district level must ensure that the pain points in such schools are addressed.
The guidelines also mandate department officials to conduct weekly visits to schools on Fridays and analyse the learning progress in the respective schools. All schools must conduct three preparatory examinations with webcasting.
“Students who fail the examinations can register again. Adequate steps should be initiated to ensure that students make use of this and register in larger numbers. Widespread campaigns in this regard should be held at the taluk and zilla levels,” the guidelines say.