Alarm bells ring, most students who failed twice in Class 9 at risk of dropping out

“ As part of our ongoing efforts to reduce the dropout rate among students, it has been observed that the students who have failed twice are at the risk of discontinuing their education. These students need immediate attention and support so they do not drop out,” said a directive issued by the Directorate of Education to the Heads of Government schools guiding them to counsel students and parents to not discontinue school.

“This initiative aims to give them an opportunity to continue their education at their own pace and in the subjects of their own choice so that they can be mainstreamed into their parent school once they pass class X” it added. The Delhi government did not respond to questions despite repeated attempts.

While the Delhi government has been celebrating improvements in pass percentage in classes 10 and 12 in CBSE board examinations, class 9 results have been a persistent issue.

In the academic year 2023-24, in class 9, around 36% students had to be held back after failing to clear their exams even after a remedial or compartment exam.

The pass percentage of Class IX and Class XI students in Delhi government schools has dipped below pre-pandemic levels.

For Class IX students, the pass percentage for the years 2019, 2020 and 2021 stood at 84.72%, 87.13% and 88.49%.

In 2022, the pass percentage of students saw a sharp dip from 84.72% in 2019-20 to 65.52% in 2022-23 In 2018-19, around 42% failed. At the time, the Delhi government had said that 40% percent of those who did not pass dropped out of school.

Around 2.5 lakh students from government schools appear for the Class IX exam each year. Delhi government came up with a two-fold strategy, then Education Minister Manish Sisodia had said, “Statistics on dropouts should be responded to with urgency. These students must be traced. We need to apply a two-fold strategy. They need to be brought back and made to benefit from skilling and vocational training.”

NIOS, meanwhile, has the option to enrol students online or in person. “The NIOS has 100% online admission at the Secondary and the Senior Secondary Education levels in order to facilitate learners to register,” states its official website. Facilitation centres and regional centres have also been set up to help students register online. A Delhi government school teacher said, “There are two ways to enrol a student in NIOS. Either a student privately enrols himself/herself or they enrol themselves in the NIOS centres which have been established in different schools. In the second case, the school will carry out the process of admitting the students who failed class IX twice into the NIOS centres.”

Students’ kin, however, alleged that help is not readily available. Ifrar, 45, a daily wage worker in Khajoori Khas, whose niece has failed to clear Class IX twice, said, “My niece couldn’t pass class IX and failed twice due to family issues the first time around and the second time she was admitted in the hospital as she got typhoid. My sister and I went to speak to the principal of the school yesterday but they directed us to different places and offices to get rid of us. They did not offer to help us out in applying for admission, even in the open school,” he added. He said his niece passed in mathematics but got a compartment in science and couldn’t clear her compartment examination.