A math problem: How Delhi government is trying to get students to learn this subject better
The 2019 board exam results were the start of a new experiment for the Delhi government. Having realised that mathematics was dragging the pass percentage down, schools and the education department have spent months trying to address the stumbling block. The Indian Express looks at how they’re going about it.
Special Mathematics class being given to the students of class 10, to improve the overall result in the Delhi Government school. (Express photo by Abhinav Saha)
“I just couldn’t wrap my head around polynomials. There’s x and y and z… there’s x on both sides of the equation… there is division and multiplication. It didn’t make any sense to me,” said 17-year-old Hemant, half embarrassed and half exasperated.
“For me it was all that sin, tan, cos, theta mumbo jumbo,” piped in his friend Shivam, with other boys around him nodding in agreement.
Both boys were among 47,231 students of Delhi government schools who were unable to clear the CBSE class X board examinations conducted in March this year. Like over half of these students, they had failed in only one subject — Mathematics
Low pass percentage in CBSE class X examinations has been a pattern in Delhi government schools, and the children’s struggle with maths has been the biggest cause. After this year’s examination, around 350 schools had been identified where less than 55% of students had passed in maths in class X. These schools — and the government machinery behind them — are now working on a single mission: To increase the number of students passing in maths in the 2020 exam.For a government which forefronts education as its most major field of interventions and initiatives, the low pass percentages remain a glaring gap in an otherwise favourable public image of work done in its schools.
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The quest to conquer mathematics began soon after results were declared in May, and analyses of the results by education department officials threw up some clear trends.
Low pass percentage in CBSE class X examinations has been a pattern in Delhi government schools, and the children’s struggle with maths has been the biggest cause. (Express photo by Abhinav Saha)
“Looking through the data we had collected, we found that students were performing well in other subjects. More than 96% had passed in English, Hindi and social science but maths emerged as a major issue. Only around 73% students had passed in it. Around 86% had passed in science,” said Shailendra Sharma, principal advisor to the Directorate of Education.
A still closer look at the results showed that it might not yet be too late to help some of these students save an academic year. For students who fail in either one or two subjects, the central board provides an opportunity to appear for compartment examinations in those particular subjects a few months later.
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