Andhra's abysmal 10th class pass percentage: Inadequate online teaching and now an intense TDP-YSRCP online war

The political fracas over the abysmal 10th class pass per centage this year in Andhra Pradesh escalated with few YSRCP leaders gatecrashing the Zoom meeting TDP leader Nara Lokesh held with some 10th class students on Thursday.

Former civil supplies minister Kodali Venkateshwara Rao and Vallabhaneni Vamsi, a TDP MLA who shifted loyalties to YSRCP are among these YSRCP leaders.

In the results announced earlier this week, the school end exam pass per centage was pegged at 67.26, the lowest in about two decades. While over 6.15 lakh students appeared for the exams held in April-May, only 4.14 lakh passed.

Thus, two lakh students have failed the exam. 71 schools have scored a zero result. At least four students have reportedly ended their life unable to bear the failure.

AP education minister Botcha Satyanarayana had put the blame on the Covid-19 pandemic that disrupted studies the last two years. In fact, the 10th exams were not conducted the last two years and all the students were declared as passed.

However, the TDP is holding the Jaganmohan Reddy government responsible for the debacle, stating that the 10th pass per centage was as high as 90-95 per cent during Chandrababu Naidu's term.

The former CM blamed the factors like lack of teacher recruitment, merger of schools and engagement of teachers in non-academic works as having contributed to the down-slide.

Naidu questioned the “high failure rate despite the much-trumpeted Nadu-Nedu programme of transforming government schools infrastructure in the last three years.”

“These are government murders, not suicides,” said Lokesh while interacting with a couple of bereaved parents on the Zoom call Thursday morning.

Subsequently, the YSRCP leaders joined the online call with Lokesh, with their student relative first logging in. Once the organizers realized who they were, the YSRCP leaders' voices were muted.

“Instead of instilling confidence among the students, Lokesh appears to be trying to incite them towards suicide. We entered the Zoom call to question the unethical means of involving innocent students in TDP's politics. But he escaped, avoiding facing our questions,” Kodali told reporters later.

Lokesh accused the YSRCP of trying to disrupt his interactions with students, and families to know their suffering.

“I am not scared of anyone. Instead of questioning me, these leaders should ask the CM to waive the re-verification and supplementary exams fees,” Lokesh responded, while accusing that power cuts were imposed during the exam times.

Other senior leaders from the two parties too engaged in a Twitter war, trading charges and calling names.

Lokesh further suspected “a YSRCP government conspiracy behind large scale failure of 10th students.”

“The Jagan regime was trying to reduce the number of eligible students under the Amma Vodi scheme to reduce its financial burden. The ulterior methods are due to lack of funds and inability to bring loans.”

Amma-vodi, a welfare scheme launched by Reddy in 2020, offers Rs 15,000 per year to poor section mothers sending their kids to schools. It is applicable till class XII.

The 10th exams this year were marred by paper leak incidents too.