Though the marginal drop in the pass percentage of students who wrote High School Leaving Certificate (HSLC) examination this year- from 69.42% in 2021 to 64.69%, the lowest in six years, is a matter of worry, it is not surprising considering the learning loss and disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic on education since 2020. Educational institutions were faced with the daunting task of abruptly shifting to online teaching during the initial days of the pandemic, and then to physical classes again, which was an ‘on-again off-again’ affair. This juggling between online and offline classes affected the students as well and there are possibilities of its after-effects being felt over the next few years if educational institutions don’t take up measures to arrest it. Despite this challenge, they pulled through reasonably well, which is commendable. The main area of concern is consistently poor performance of government schools. It is not something new but it doesn’t mean nothing should be done about it. This year, government schools in the state recorded a pass percentage of 36.62%, down from 44.86% in 2021. The best performance government schools had recorded in the past six years was in 2020 with 47.40% candidates qualifying the examination. However, the performance of private schools was above 80% during this period, with an 82.08% pass percentage this year. This year, 33 government schools out of 267 recorded nil results. This consistent dismal performance of public sector educational institutions is a matter of serious concern that should be addressed on a war footing. It is like a chronic disease that needs to be diagnosed before starting treatment. Several areas like infrastructure, availability of teachers, student enrolment, proxy teaching issue, administration, etc. have to be looked into and rectified to rejuvenate government schools from the present situation. It requires harsh measures and several years of concerted efforts from all quarters – Education department, teachers and communities – to earn the trust of the public by providing quality education.
Another area that needs to be pondered upon is the disparity in pass percentage among the districts. While government schools in some districts like Kohima, Mokokchung and Peren secured above 50% pass percentage, Kiphire, Longleng, Mon and Noklak recorded below 20%. Out of 13 government schools in Kiphire, six of them recorded nil pass percentage, with an overall performance of 7%, while two schools out of four in Noklak recorded zero results with an overall performance of 8%. This huge disparity in performance could be partly because of the pandemic which affected remote villages more than urban areas because of internet connectivity problem. But then, the NBSE data shows private educational institutions from across the state doing well with Noklak standing at the bottom at 61%, which is way more than 8%, pointing at the possibility of government schools being neglected in some areas. This matter should be seriously looked into in order to uplift the people in rural areas, more so because private schools are concentrated mainly in Kohima, Dimapur and other urban areas. We can’t afford to leave the rural population behind in education.