Dropouts drive class division wider

While some officials at the Higher Secondary Council admit many students drift away from studies for lack of proper guidance,others believe the high dropout rate may be because of gender,caste and class disadvantages. Still others blamed the huge gap on the low pass percentage at Madhyamik level,which is 81.74 per cent this year.

“Because of the Sarva Sikhsha Abhiyaan in this decade,the number of students appearing for Class X examination has increased. But after the Madhyamik examination,many students from rural areas do not get proper counseling,” said an official of the school education department.

“After the Rastriya Madhyamik Siksha Abhiyaan is implemented at the higher secondary level from 2012,we may see an improvement,” said Onkar Sadhan Adhikari,president of West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education.

The officials of the HS Council also point out that not more 12 per cent of students are enrolled in regular science streams at the higher secondary level,a figure that should be somewhere around 20 per cent. This year,the state government upgraded about 350 new higher secondary schools to accommodate the number of students who have passed Madhyamik exams.