Class X results : Best in 10 years Marginal improvement

A marginal improvement from last year but the highest in the last ten years and this should say something significant. The figure says it. With a pass percentage of 74.69 percent up from 73.18 percent last year, this is the best in the past ten years in the HSLC examination results but this best in a decade pales in comparison with the CBSE which notched up a pass percentage of 91.10 and ICSE at 98.54. And this when education and competition amongst the young students need to be seen in the context of the country and not only Manipur. This is not to downrun the showing of the students but to put the simple facts straight. Yes the students, parents, guardians and the State Government may rejoice in the fact that this is the best showing in the last ten years, but competition is such that there will definitely come a time when students of Manipur will have to compete with their counter parts from across the country and this is where rooms for improvement become starkly visible. It is also important for the young students to keep in mind that Class X is but the first step towards the big world, where everything is about competition and which does not have a place for mediocrity. The question is whether the right ambience has been created to let the students bring out the best from within. This is where the role of parents, the elders of family, the schools, the teachers and the society as a whole becomes important. Creating the  right ambience would entail telling the young students that Class X is but the first step and they still have miles to go before they can hang up their boots.
As anticipated earlier here in this column  more than once, schools which specialise in the Plus 2 level as well as others have started rolling out the freebies to attract the best students. A classic case of competition amongst students changing hands to competition amongst schools and while this is definitely a positive trend for competition brings out the best in everyone, questions may well be raised on the freebies being put on offer for the best. Not clear whether such a trend will prepare the young students to develop the spirit of competition, but it clearly tells the story of where the winners take it all. This is where it becomes important to question whether making a topper out of a topper again two years down the line can be the sole parameter on the performance of the school concerned or not. It would definitely be easier to ensure that a student who has come in the first 25 position in the Class X examination retains her position two years down the line than to propel a student who scored a healthy 70 percent in the Class X examination to the top 20 positions in the Class XII examination. This can be the yardstick of the inputs that a school goes into making a student bright and meritorious. Craft the young mind in such a way that in two years time they are ready to rub shoulders with the best that the State has to offer. This may be the line that parents and everyone concerned may take up to judge the performance of a school. The only hitch is, will such a side of the story make it to the public domain ?