Students from Mohali district once again performed poorly in the Punjab School Education Board Class X exams, results for which were declared on Tuesday. Mohali recorded a pass-percentage of only 55.35 per cent, whereas the overall pass-percentage in the state was 68.61 per cent. In terms of meritorious students, too, there were only four merit-holders in the district, none of whom are in the top ten. In fact, the pass-percentage saw a 6.2 per cent decline from last year’s figure of 61.56 per cent. “There is no reason why Mohali’s performance should be dismal. It is an urbanised district close to the state capital and there should ideally be no shortage of teachers, or of good teachers. I will look into this, and an explanation will be sought from the officials concerned,” said Mohali Deputy Commissioner TPS Sidhu. [related-post] Among all the districts, Mohali ranked third from the bottom in terms of the overall pass-percentage, ahead of only Barnala and Jalandhar. Of 10,766 students from the district who appeared in the examinations, only 5,959 passed. Even in terms of the number of students from the district who made it to the merit list, the district ranked third from bottom. There were only four students in the merit list and only one of them was from Mohali town; the others were from Dera Bassi, Banur and Gharuan. The district was ahead of only Tarn Taran and Pathankot, where three students in each district were declared meritorious. Moreover, even in the Class XII results declared this year, it was the worst-performing district. Mohali has consistently been faring poorly in the PSEB results and one of the reasons attributed to this trend has been the posting of “VIP teachers” in the district. Former education minister Sikander Singh Maluka had repeatedly said last year that “influential teachers” related to senior bureaucrats and politicians based in Chandigarh were getting themselves posted in Mohali and not delivering good results.
