A+ row heats up but experts admit drop in educational standards

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Recently, the director of public education spewed some facts which didn’t bode well with the government, but suffice to say, despite the remarks being controversial, they touched facts.

“Students who can’t even read alphabets together are getting A+ grades in SSLC.” the remark from the director of public education may be a tad superficial however, it is a fact that there has been a drop in standards among students.

According to present standards, students need to earn just 10 marks out of 100 to pass the exams. Another 20 marks will be obtained from the teacher in class through continuous assessment. If the question paper is of 50 marks, 5 marks is sufficient for a student to pass.

Earlier, a student had to get at least 35 marks in a written examination to pass the test. But now, teachers can give marks through continuous evaluation conducted in classrooms. The demand for minimum marks in the written test has become stronger again while the government is simply interested in highlighting the success rate.

Due to this farce in exams, Kerala Syllabus students are lagging in the entrance examinations conducted for professional courses and graduate courses in central universities.

On another note, a move has been made to find the teachers who leaked the remarks made by the Director of Public Education S. Shanavas in the workshop held for the teachers preparing the SSLC question papers.

Minister V. Sivankutty said that the Principal Secretary of the Department of Public Education has been entrusted with the investigation at the departmental level.