Tucked away in a corner of Byrasandra in Jayanagar 1st Block here is Sri Gururaja High School. Spotting it would be hard but for a large whitewashed wall that has the school’s name prominently painted in Kannada. Inside, the school wears a near-deserted look with only one student in one of the three classrooms.
The school, along with four others in Bangalore, had the dubious distinction of registering zero pass percentage in the SSLC results declared recently. While the lack of proper infrastructure may be mentioned as a reason, the managements of these schools blame students’ disinterest and poor attendance for the disastrous results.
When this reporter visited the Sri Gururaja High School around 1 pm on Thursday, its principal, Yashodha, was anxiously waiting for more students to turn up. “Most students who enrol never turn up for class. Our efforts to persuade parents to send their wards to school have gone in vain,” she said.
As many as seven students wrote the SSLC exam this year. The present student strength is 21. “In the last three years, the student strength has rapidly dwindled and we are considering closing down the school and renting the building,” said Yashodha.
The Corporation Boys’ High School in Basavanagudi, another school with zero pass percentage, resembled a haunted building when this reporter went there. Inquiries revealed that the school had been closed down and its students transferred to the nearby Corporation Girls’ High School. This was, however, not a direct result of the dismal SSLC results but on account of multiple factors over the years.
“Of the 13 students who enrolled for the SSLC exam, just five took it. Most students would run away from school and were not at all interested,” said the school principal, Malini. A worker at the school said that more than 150 students had enrolled at the school last year, but hardly a few ever turned up. “I never saw more than 10 or 11 students in a day in the school,” the worker said.
An ITI is being run in the very floor the Rohini International Public School on Mysore Road is located. The school functions on the second floor and is located within a residential premises. The ground floor is occupied by some shops. As many as 10 students had enrolled for the SSLC exams in April 2014, but just one wrote all the papers while the rest quit halfway, the school’s administrative officer, Soumya K, said.
‘Future will be bright’
Smithi John, principal of Emmanuel High School, RS Palya, said 16 students took the SSLC exams from the school but none sailed through. But she is hopeful that the present batch will do well.
Pramod, a class 10 student, said: “I want to study science in the pre-university and take up engineering later,” he said. “I have to pass the SSLC exam.” The management of the fifth school, Sri Manjunathaswamy High School in Nagashetty Halli, was not available for comment.