In the academic year 2018-19, students of Chennai’s corporation schools had passed the Class 10 SSLC examination with an impressive pass percentage of 92.4%. Just three years later, this pass percentage has come down to 75.8% — a drop of more than 16%. Of the 6,448 students who appeared for the Class 10 exam, only 4,890 students passed. Among the schools that scored the lowest pass percentages this year is the Corporation Higher Secondary School (CHSS) on CB road, which secured a total pass percentage of 52%, with just 26 out of 50 students clearing the exam. The CHSS in Goyathope secured a pass percentage of 43.33%, while the CHSS on Lloyds Road scored a whopping 0%, with all of the eight students who appeared for the exam failing to achieve the pass mark.
So what went wrong in these three years? There is the COVID-19 pandemic, for one. As several studies have found, the long periods of online classes in the wake of the pandemic-induced lockdown have had a significantly adverse impact on the learning activities of students. The data says that the situation has been particularly worse for students from economically and socially backward backgrounds, with the increased dependence on technology only serving to widen the digital divide. In fact, according to a national sample survey by the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) and think tank LIRNEAsia, only 20% of school-age children in India had access to remote education during the pandemic, of whom only half participated in live online lessons.
Hence, it does not come as a surprise that the academic performance of the students of Chennai’s corporation school — a majority of whom reportedly hails from the city’s slum areas — has taken a severe hit during this period. It is learnt that many students had dropped out of their respective schools even before clearing the public exam, with those from rural areas instead forced to work in brick kilns, tea shops, and knitwear industries. While the authorities of some of the schools that recorded lower pass percentages this year refused to respond to TNM’s questions, some of the local residents said that neither the school’s facilities nor the teachers seemed to be the problem. In Goyathope, especially, many students had failed to attend classes due to the displacement process underway in the area. Students from the decades-old tenements, from where officials have reportedly asked residents to move out citing safety concerns, had resorted to taking long leaves from school as their parents looked for new locations to shift to.
PT Room in Choolaimedu Higher Secondary School (TNM Photo by Nithya Pandian)
According to officials of the Greater Chennai Corporation, however, economic backgrounds cannot be cited as the sole reason for the drop in school passing rates. “Most of the students in Chennai’s corporation schools are from slum areas only. But the Corporation has taken enormous steps to improve the atmosphere of our schools and classrooms to make students attend classes regularly,” says a senior Corporation official.
“Students’ attendance and discipline are our major concerns,” says the official, adding that School Management Committees (SMC) have been set up in every school to address this. An SMC, constituted under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, has at least 20 members including the parents of the students from different walks of life, members of school administration, and elected local body members. In Tamil Nadu, as per a press release dated March 18, around 75% of the committee members (15 members) should be the parents of the kids in the school, among whom 10 should be mothers. One of the parents should be the leader of the committee, while a parent of a student with disabilities, or a parent who is working as a conservancy worker, is a trans person, belongs to the SC/ST category, or is HIV positive should be a vice-president of the committee. The respective school HM would act as the convenor. Other members of the committee will include teachers’ representatives, parents’ representatives (belonging to SC/ST, MBC, and economically weaker sections), local body representatives, educationists/ NGOs/ retired teachers, and self-help group members.
“SMC meetings are held every month to sort out any problems the school may be facing, lack of amenities, students’ attendance, etc. The headmaster/headmistress (HM) consults the student’s parents if the attendance is lagging, or when they take long leaves unannounced. Sometimes, the teachers and the HM even visit the parents and discuss the situation with them to understand the underlying issue. Eventually, this would help us secure better results from the upcoming academic year,” the Corporation official tells TNM.
The library space in Choolaimedu Higher Secondary School (TNM Photo by Nithya Pandian)
Choolaimedu school’s success story
This is not to say that the performances of all of Chennai’s corporation schools were abysmal. If the Chennai Girls HSS at Pulla Avenue secured a pass percentage of 97.56%, with 200 out of 205 students clearing the exams, the Chennai Urdu High School in Washermenpet recorded a pass percentage of 97.67%. As many as 42 out of the 43 students from the Washermenpet school passed the exam. But the most impressive was the performance of the CHSS in Choolaimedu, which secured a pass percentage of 100%, with all 16 of its students who appeared passing the SSLC exam. So what did the Choolaimedu school do differently?
Choolaimedu CHSS headmistress Nalini Johanna recalls that when she was transferred to this school back in 2019, students had no interest in coming to school, there were no watchmen, and random people used to come to the school premises to drink liquor. “I wanted to bring a change to this atmosphere, and ensure that the students come to school regularly. Initially, the school’s teachers contributed around Rs 1.2 lakh to paint the school walls. Once the local residents started to notice the changes in the school in which their kids are studying, they too started to contribute. All the saplings and fruit trees here were donated by them. The terrace garden is being maintained by the students. During the time of the pandemic, the parents used to sponsor snacks for students attending special classes,” says Nalini.
Rest assured, the school made tremendous progress, with students finally beginning to regularly attend school. The morning breakfast programme arranged by high school teachers for the students was definitely of help. They had ordered the morning tiffin from the nearest ‘Amma Mess’, Nalini says. The vegetables from the terrace garden are used in the students’ mid-day meals. The teachers, parents and students worked together to set up a proper water supply to the school. When Nalini first took charge, there were only 160 students in the school. Now, the school has more than 400 students. If there were only 16 students in Class 10 in the 2021-22 academic year, there are 40 now.
“Many parents left the city during the pandemic,” Nalini says. “It had been difficult for the parents to pay rent for these houses in the city with no jobs. After the school opened, we called every parent and asked them about their grievances. We discussed with them the next course of action, as we wanted them to make sure that their kids were studying. We also provided them with provisions during the pandemic. Some students came to school at the last minute and prepared for the public exams. We never thought we could make it to this result. But our kids performed,” she says.
The school in Choolaimedu has a library and a smart classroom, besides which some people have volunteered to teach the students volleyball and football. CCTVs have also been installed on the premises. “All of these developments happened because the parents were actively engaged with teachers in discussing the issues faced by the school at the SMC. There is no doubt that if a school can provide a good environment for the kids, it will help them perform better in exams and excel in extracurricular activities as well,” she says.