Preparing for the future. And this is perhaps the first stepping stone. More than an annual board exam and this is how the Class X board exam should be viewed. Now that the Board of Secondary Education, Manipur (BOSEM) has declared the result of the Class X Board exam, it is time to take stock of certain realities. A pass percentage of 65.37 may be okay, but it pales when pitted against the performance dished out by the Central Board of Secondary Education or the record of the ICSE Class X exam. A pass percentage of 98.12 is the record of the Class X ICSE exam this year while for the CBSE it was 99.03 pc last year. A more than enough indication that students here still have miles to walk to be able to rub shoulders with students across the country. Disheartening to note that the situation is the same in some of the North Eastern States. In the Class X exam result under Nagaland Board of Secondary Education, the pass percentage was 65.42 this year while at Mizoram it was 68.3 pc last year. Like Manipur too the students who came out in flying colours in the two mentioned States, must be students who studied in private schools. No doubt the pass percentage of 65.4 was better than the 61.5 pc recorded last year but still there is a lot of ground for the young students to walk.
Statistics, cold statistics but they reflect the reality and there is nothing much to crow about this. Again if one looks at the statistics of the first 25 toppers, it will leave no one in doubt that other districts, particularly the hill districts, still have a lot of room to improve. Other than some candidates from Bishnupur district, it is Imphal East and Imphal West which have hogged the limelight. Nothing new here, for this is what has been happening down the years, but this is something which should be studied closely. Is this an indication that if students want to do well in the Class X and Class XII examinations they should study in schools located at Imphal ? Why aren’t the schools in the other districts not producing meritorious students or toppers ? Another look at the merit list will again underline the point that it is the mission schools which have walked away with all the honour. Again nothing new here and the Government should have woken up to this a long, long time back. In short the pass percentage is not good enough and for too long the merit list has bene dominated by private schools. Moreover efforts need to be taken up to see how students from other districts particularly the hill districts can be made more competitive. Time for the elders to seriously ponder over these points.
Home Editorial
