Haryana Education Minister Ram Bilas Sharma’s solution for better results is yoga

In the results announced Wednesday, 58.72 per cent students of Class X and 46.04 per cent of Class XII failed in their examinations, underlining the dismal state of school education in Haryana.

At a press conference, when asked repeatedly about the high failure rates, Sharma’s response to a barrage of questions was that students needed more yoga and moral education.

“A sound body will have a sound mind. We will teach yoga to the students. Baba Ramdev is coming to Chandigarh on Friday and we will have a discussion on the issue.”

Sharma, who said he had specifically asked to be the education minister knowing well that no one wanted the ministry, accepted that it was a “tough challenge” that his government faced.

When asked about concrete proposals to improve the standards of education, he said his government would start residential schools.

Pressed for details, Sharma said: “The colour of the sun’s rays is saffron. The dress of the saint is saffron. The upper portion of the tricolour is saffron. If people do not understand this then what do we do.”

Sharma also blamed the poor results on the previous Congress government.

The minister claimed that in the past six months, the BJP government has passed bill for protection of cows and decided to introduce Bhagvad Gita in schools. “In order to make good human beings, the Education Department would provide moral education. Apart from teaching Gita, we would teach portions from the Guru Granth Sahib and Koran,” said Sharma.

Haryana fares poorly when it comes to quality of education. As per this year’s Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), of schoolgoing students, 64.1 percent of students in Class III can read atleast a Class I text book. Of these, 82.8 students are in private schools, while just 36.5 percent of these are from government schools.

While in 2006, as many as 74.1 per cent students of Class V could read Class II level textbook, this has reduced to 68.2 per cent. There is a decline in percentage of students who can divide and subtract. Also, there is a wide gap between performance of students of government and private schools.

Haryana government has also appointed RSS ideologue Dinanath Batra as the patron of Guidance Board and Education Advisory Committee.

Sharma said that the results are indicator of performance of the previous Congress government. He stated that while the results were poor in the previous years as well, the government used to give grace marks to show higher pass percentage. He claimed that the actual pass percentage of Class X in 2012 was 40.63 per cent which was raised to 65.38 per cent by adding grace marks.

He further said that in 2013, the actual pass percentage was 40.95 per cent which was increased to 50.79 per cent. Meanwhile, 52 per cent pass percentage of 2014 was increased to 60 per cent. “This time we held discussions and decided that the actual position should come forward,” he says.

The pass percentage of Class XII this year was 53.96 per cent with 22 per cent compartment or re-appear. The department would conduct coaching classes in June for these students.