Latur’s study model is key to 100% Class 10 success formula, say schools, teachers

“It has been a long busy year, but the results are worth the backbreaking hardship,” said 15-year old Sayli Khamitkar, a student from Latur who scored a perfect 100% at the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examination this year.

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Sayli’s school, Deshikendra Vidyalaya, had 22 perfect scorers, while another school in the vicinity, Keshavraj Vidyalaya, had 25. Lal Bahadur Shashtri Vidyalay in Udgir had 14 students who scored 100% in the Class 10 exams.

Of the 242 students who scored a perfect 100 across the nine divisions in the state this year, 151 are from the Latur division. Taking forward the much talked about the Latur pattern of study, schools in the district have been able to establish their hold over the elite ‘100% club’, a phenomenon that is seen in the state board results post 2016, after the state education department introduced bonus marks for art and culture for the Class 10 exams.

Latur division’s phenomenal results, however, are not accidental. They are a product of years of planned and calculated study which is intrinsic to the teaching model of most schools in Latur.

“We have a very serious and holistic approach towards board exams. We first take a test in the month of May every year before the new academic year begins for students. On the basis of this test, we divide students into A, B, C and D. The A division consists of the top scorers, while the B division is formed by the moderate students and so on. This way, we train every division as per their needs. Our teachers aim to complete the entire SSC syllabus by Diwali vacations (in October). Even the Diwali break, which is a long holiday for most students, is only a break of five-six days for our students. After they return from the break, they are given several papers to solve and the best students are then trained again to ensure that they do not lose out on a single mark,” said Manjuldas Gavate, principal of Keshavraj Vidyalaya. Of the 700 students who appeared for the SSC exams from the school this year, 303 scored 90% and above.

At Deshikendra Vidyalaya, teachers who teach Class 10 students are in school practically the entire day.

“The school begins at 7am and ends at 1pm. After this, we give students some free time to go home, eat their lunch and attend classes, if any. After the Diwali break, we identify about 250 students who are expected to score near-perfect marks and accordingly give them additional training from 5pm to 7pm every day. These classes consist of solving hundreds of question papers and getting doubts solved from experts who we call from outside to guide our students. Our students are motivated to get perfect scores from the very first day and we just give them the right advice,” said Manoj Mothe, the school’s science teacher.

The Latur pattern of study is a model that emerged in the 1980s as an initiative of a group of passionate educationists in the district, who wanted to improve the status of education in the region. With the district being carved out in 1982, schools and colleges started consciously training students with the support of parents to improve the learning outcomes.

“The term ‘Latur pattern’, however, was coined when the then education minister Vilasrao Deshmukh used it while felicitating meritorious students at an event in 1988”, said Vivek Ghotale, a Pune-based researcher and educationist, who has published a book on the district’s political process.

As years passed, however, the pattern was used by coaching classes and private schools to develop a more rigorous study model, which promised students to help them crack competitive exams such as the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET), Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) and Common Entrance Test (CET).

For most students in Latur, the road to a good career starts by getting admission in the district’s reputed Rajarshi Shahu College, which is also known for its rigorous teaching style and good results.

“The cut off for the first-year junior college (FYJC) seats in the institute is as high as 98-99% every year. This means that students have to start preparing from school to be able to make it there. This is a major motivating factor for students to aim for cent percent scores,” said Jashan Devpriya Dole, who teaches at a Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) school in Udgir.

Sayli for instance, had already made it to the college even before her SSC results came out.

“The college takes a screening test for students a week after the board exams end (in April) and students who pass the exam get direct entry to the institute. I cleared the exam and have been attending online classes ever since. I am still behind some of my classmates who have completed the entire syllabus for Class 11 and 12 already,” said Sayli.

Like most of her classmates, Sayli wants to crack the JEE test and become a computer engineer.

While scoring 98-99% is achievable with rigorous study, achieving a perfect score also requires excelling at extra-curricular activities. Students who excel in drawing, dance, music and sports are allotted bonus marks.

Ranging from three to 15 marks, depending on the child’s achievements, these points help the students get the perfect 100.

“We train students from Class 1 to excel in different activities, which helps them in scoring well later. This is not for marks but to ensure their all-round development,” said Sanjay Vibhute, principal of Lal Bahadur Shastri Vidyalay in Udgir.

This year, 5,714 students in the Latur division were allotted bonus marks for art, culture and sports, which is 14% of the total number of students who appeared for the exams from the division.

Tanaji Patil, a teacher of Shri Shambhugir Vidyalaya, Wadgaon, who worked as a member on the Latur divisional board in the past, said, “These schools also give a lot of incentives to teachers and that motivates us to work for extra hours. Parents, too, are quite aware here and start planning for their child’s professional career from early on.”

Ghotale said that while several schools in Latur help students from socially and economically backward backgrounds get good scores, only a few schools that dominate the top-scorers list are usually considered to be prestigious.

“In reality, these schools get students from comparatively privileged socio-economic backgrounds, which means that their parents are aware as well as willing to spend for their education. Many of these students also take additional coaching from early years, which gives them the desired results,” he added.