Move to block 'indirect route' for I PU failed students

Performance evaluation throughout the year

The Department of Pre-University Education (DPUE) is in the process of finalising means of discontinuing provisions allowing students who fail I PUC to take an indirect route through private enrolments and appear for II PUC examination.

A senior DPUE official, while stating that a tentative decision has already been taken to end this, said: “There are a lot of students who fail in the first year and instead of attempting it another time, use the private enrolment as an indirect route to directly appear for the second year exams.”

The official said that students using this “indirect” route become hurdles to those who have actually discontinued their education after SSLC or class 10 for various personal reasons and want to return to mainstream education after a break.

Given that there are limitations over the number of private enrolment each centre/college is allowed to register, many “genuine students” face problems, another official explained.

On whether it was not the right of a student to decide if she wants to take supplementary exams on failing I PUC or  appear directly for the second year exams, the official said: “It is.”

However, the official emphasised that private enrolments’ objective is to attract and facilitate those students who have discontinued studies and want to come back to the mainstream and not to provide those unable to clear first year exams an indirect route.

Stating that the indirect route was unfair, the official added that the new move is most likely to be implemented from the next academic year.

And in order to not be rude to regular students as also to enable them in enhancing other essential skills that supplement academic performance, the department is planning to judge the academic performance of I PUC (science) students through the Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) scheme.

The same will be implemented for Arts and commerce students from the academic year 2013-14.

This effectively means that the I PUC students will not have examinations as the end point to proceed to the next class. “They will be judged on many grounds, giving them an opportunity to excel in areas of interest even if they are a little weak academically, thereby, making the process of moving ahead easier.”

With the I PUC (science) syllabus being revised as per the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) in 2012-13, the department will, in all probability, introduce the CCE scheme to judge students’ academic performance.

Under CCE, students’ performance will be evaluated through a series of academic and extra-curricular activities all through the year.

The introduction of CCE, however, is not the only straw in the wind. While the move to end priva    te enrolment of I PUC students already in the mainstream is welcome, the department is ill-equipped to classify such students.

To be precise, since students will not be failed in I PUC, the department, although maintain that a large number of private candidates were those who dropped out after I PUC, is unable to put its fingers on a concrete number.

In the ongoing II PUC examination, as many as 36,907 private candidates have enrolled but the department has no clue as to how many of them are those who have failed first year.

The DPUE does not have a mechanism to find out if a private candidate has failed first year.

For, private candidates submit only SSLC marks cards, leaving the DPU in the dark. Besides, since I PUC exam is conducted at the district level, the DPUE does not maintain the students’ records.

Nonetheless, the DPUE estimates that most private enrolments are those who drop out after failing in I PUC.

 “Instead of re-appearing for the I PUC examination, these students drop out and later enrol as private candidates,” a DPUE official explained.