Ludhiana’s Class 10 students unhappy over decision to promote them based on pre-board results

Over 65 students in government schools of the district who had failed in all five subjects in the pre-board exams held in January this year were highly disappointed by the government’s move

Amid lockdown due to the Covid-19 outbreak, the joy of students of Classes 5 and 8 knew no bounds when they got to know that they had been promoted to the next class. However, the Punjab government’s decision to promote Class 10 students based on their performance in pre-board exams has left students worried, especially those who failed in the exams.

Students who were aiming to score higher feel disappointed as they had been preparing rigorously for the board exams for the last three months. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Even meritorious students feel disappointed as they had prepared rigorously for the board exams in the last three months and were waiting for the date sheet to be declared.

Manvi Dholan, a Class 10 student, said she was disappointed with the decision taken by the government as she had been preparing hard for the final exams. “I scored 99% marks overall in the pre-board exams held in January with 100% marks both in mathematics and Hindi. I had aimed to score 100% marks in the final board exams and had also appeared in all the test series conducted by the mentors online,” she added.

As per the report of the district authorities, over 65 students in government schools of Ludhiana had failed in all five subjects in the pre-board exams held in January this year. “A total of 17,000 students of Class 10 appeared in the pre-board exams. Around 82 students scored above 95% marks while 350 students scored above 90% marks in the pre-board exams,” mentioned the report.

In January, the district officials had also differentiated the government schools as top and poor performers. Among these, Government High School, Ramgarh Bhullar, ranked the lowest in the district. The headmistress of the school, Kanta Devi, said, “Of a total 51 students who appeared in the pre-board exams in the school, only two students failed in English.”

Government Senior Secondary School, Galib Kalan, which ranked 339 in the district was among poor performers. The principal of the school, Baljit Kaur, said, “We have a total of 89 students in Class 10 in our school and many of these students have flunked in mathematics in the pre-board exams.”

“With the help of extra classes, many students have improved their score and we were expecting that they will get through in the board exams,” added the principal.

District education officer, secondary, Swaranjit Kaur, said, “We have so far not received any instructions from the head office to promote students of Class 10 on the basis of their pre-board performance.” The DEO said that she will only be able to comment only after she receives some information regarding the same.