Measures to enhance SSLC passing percentage by at least 20% in Mysuru district

Regarding the preparations in Mysuru district, Mysuru DDPI D Uday Kumar said, 'A total of 39,349 students of 277 government schools, 122 aided and 304 non-aided schools have registered for the SSLC exam this year in the district.'

Mysuru: Officials of the Department of School Education and Literacy have stepped up measures to enhance the performance and passing percentage of SSLC students in Chief Minister's home district - Mysuru - by at least 15 per cent to 20 per cent this year.

Regarding the preparations in Mysuru district, speaking to DH, Mysuru DDPI D Uday Kumar said, "A total of 39,349 students of 277 government schools, 122 aided and 304 non-aided schools have registered for the SSLC exam this year in the district. They include 36,030 regular students, 2,458 repeaters; 728 private students and 133 private repeaters. They will appear for the exams in 92 centres in urban areas and 44 centres in rural areas".

He informed that they have already conducted workshops to officials and teachers about aspects like counseling and orientation of students. "Headmasters are holding parents' meetings. We are starting helplines at district and taluk levels, from March 10 till the exam ends. A team of subject teachers will be available on the helplines from 5 am to 9 am and 6 pm to 10 pm to guide students and to clarify their doubts," he said.

Regarding special measures Uday Kumar explained that among the 703 schools in Mysuru district 150 schools have been classified as A category, 455 as B category and 81 as C category, based on their performance during the previous years, and are taking measures accordingly.

"A team of officials have adopted 81 C category schools and they will stay there every Thursday, to assist the students and teachers. Four teams of officials are visiting and assessing the quality of preparation in Category A and B schools. A team of block education officers, headmasters and another team of teachers and assistant teachers are visiting households of students to assess their preparation - from 7 am to 9 am and 5 pm to 7 pm.

Uday Kumar added that while they have already completed the syllabus and two preparatory exams, they are ensuring that the students are practicing previous years' question papers of preparatory exams, four model question papers and preparing as per the blueprint (type of questions including objective type and others). The teachers are providing key answers to all these, which are also available on students' corner in the website of the board (Karnataka School Examination and Assessment Board).

Special measures

While the regular school time is 9.40 am to 4.10 pm, they have started special classes from 8.30 am in rural areas where there is a bus issue and in villages on forest fringes, and up to 5.45 pm in urban areas. Except for government holidays, they are utilising local holidays for festivals to hold special classes.

They have mapped schools and students scoring above 70 per cent, above 50 per cent and below 50 per cent, and are training them accordingly, by providing suitable practice papers. They are conducting remedial classes for students who are not strong in different subjects and are conducting open book exams so that they will know where the answers are. After availing the SDMC or parents' permission, they are holding special night classes and on Sundays.

Block level officials are holding Google meetings every evening with headmasters to assess the progress. They have formed a subject teachers forum in all the blocks and are holding online meetings every week to discuss the challenges and are sharing different methods to train the students.