Harsh Reality of Delhi Students

Education is very important for India. “Padega India tabhi to badhega India”. As per reports and data, in the year 2017-18, nearly 1.55 lakh children failed in various classes from IX-XII. Out of these the highest number of students i.e. 73,561 failed in Class IX.

As per records, out of these 1.55 lakh students, only 52,582 have been re- admitted to regular government schools. A circular was issued by the department in the month of August, 2018. It provided guidelines to the heads of various government schools for tackling the matter of re-admitting children who failed in classes IX-XII. The circular states that a student who fails once should be re-admitted to the school if they “insist” on it, but only after they have been told to consider other options like CBSE’s Patrachar Vidyalaya or National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) centres, which the state government runs in association with the NIOS. For those students who fail in two consecutive years, the circular states that, “he/she will invariably be counselled about choosing other available options like the Patrachar Vidyalaya, the NIOS, etc. and will not be allowed to be re-admitted as a regular student”. According to records, out of the children who failed in 2017-2018, less than a third were re-admitted to their schools. While 11,226 were admitted to Patrachar Vidyalayas, 18,345 were admitted to NIOS centres. Some education experts are highly critical of this movement of children away from regular schooling into distance learning modes. This policy of not allowing the re-admission of students and encouraging them to choose alternative institutes does not help them academically, and pushes them out of the formal education system. Ms. Anita Rampal, former professor of elementary and social education at Delhi University believes that once the children are admitted to NIOS, there are very faint chances of them getting a chance to pursue studies after Class X and the only option that remains with them is to go for vocational courses. The most disappointing part of this entire regulation is that 47.25% of the children who failed in 2017-2018 are unaccounted for, and not admitted to any of these institutions. The affidavit submitted by the department stated that the department is extremely concerned about those failed students who could not take admission in any of the above said three institutions running under the respondent (education department)”. It further stated that the department is taking measures such as sending letters to the addresses of the children and instructing the cluster resource centre coordinators to find out who these students are and help them in seeking admissions. This entire process of restricting the students from seeking admissions has indeed come out as a demoralising experience for students at large.

For many children, being refused re-admission is a demoralising experience.

Take, for instance, a 15-year-old who failed Class IX twice and was refused re-admission to his school in Kidwai Nagar this year.

We haven’t admitted him to an open school — it doesn’t have the manyata (recognition) of a regular school. He wasn’t even able to cope with regular school, how will his studies improve in an open school where no one will watch over and help him? We want him to continue in regular school till Class XII,” said his mother.

By: Anuja Arora

Content: https://indianexpress.com/article/education/delhi-73000-children-who-failed-in-schools-out-of-system-5681281/lite/