New Delhi: Under ‘Project NIOS’, an average of 70 per cent of students appearing for Class 10 exams have failed in the last four years – Delhi’s Directorate of Education has revealed in response to a Right to Information application filed by PTI.
This project was started by the Delhi Government to reduce the failure rate and school dropout rates in class 9th and 10th.
Under this project, students who fail in 9th and 10th class and who are weak in studies are registered with the National Institute of Open Schooling and separate classes are organized for them.
According to information received from DoE, 7,794 students had registered for class 10th under ‘NIOS Project’ in 2024, out of which only 37 percent i.e. 2,842 passed the examination.
The directorate said that under the project, 8,563 children were registered in 2017, 18,344 in 2018, 18,624 in 2019, 15,061 in 2020, 11,322 in 2021, 10,598 in 2022 and 29,436 in 2023.
According to the information received from RTI, only 3,748 students in 2017, 12,096 in 2018, 17,737 in 2019, 14,995 in 2020, 2,760 in 2021, 3,480 in 2022 and 7,658 in 2023 could pass the examination. This shows that in the last four years, only 30% of NIOS students qualified the exam.
Under this scheme, the responsibility of registering students lies with the principals of the respective schools.
For students registering under NIOS project, examination fee Rs 500 per subject has been fixed. If a subject involves practicals like painting, home science or computer science, an additional 120 marks are required for each practical subject.
Apart from this, there is a registration fee for five subjects 500, with extra 200 per subject, and a separate A fee of Rs 230 per subject is charged for credit transfer.
“There are two main reasons behind the failure of children. The first is lack of coordination,” said a teacher from a government school in Delhi on condition of anonymity.
He said that the teachers associated with the project do not provide information to the parents of the registered children whether their children are going to school or not.
Another reason, he said, is that the students involved in the project do not experience the same school environment as other children, because teachers do not hold classes for academically weaker students.
Also a major factor is that the principals of their school admit those students in NIOS who are weak in studies to improve the 10th class results of their school. The teacher explained that this sets these children apart from other students.
“Vulnerable children from poor families come to school for regular education, but in order to improve Class 10 results, government schools select these students and send them to NIOS, which offers a very poor curriculum contrary to the curriculum of the Central Board of Secondary Education,” Ashok Aggarwal, president of All India Parents Association and senior advocate of Delhi High Court, told PTI.
Aggarwal said that even if the children pass the examination, they will be given admission in Arts stream in class 11th only. He said that NIOS project is playing with the future of children.
Hari Ram Sharma, deputy director, NIOS project, Delhi Education Directorate, could not be contacted despite repeated attempts.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without any modifications to the text.
