‘Pass’ Ke Side Effects: Baseline Test Shows Punjab’s High Schoolers Are Not With It; ‘No Detention’ Policy Blamed

The Punjab government’s ‘Padho Punjab, Padhao Punjab’ learning enhancement programme reveals inferior performance in subjects such as English, Mathematics, Science and Social Science in the first baseline test conducted, the New Indian Express reports.

The baseline test was conducted in March to assess minimum learning levels of students. The results revealed an inferior display of performance by the students in class IX and X. As many as 1.65 lakh students from class X and 2.18 lakh students of Class IX took the exam.

42 per cent students in Class IX and X believe that Cabinet Minister of Food Processing, Harsimrat Kaur, rather than Rajinder Kaur Bhattal was the first woman CM of Punjab, the test revealed.

Furthermore, they were not able to correctly answer multiple choice questions (MCQs) like the meaning of ‘Punjab’, the period of Green Revolution, first woman Chief Minister of the state, number of articles in the Constitution of India, smallest district of Punjab among others.

In Mathematics, students were tested on the knowledge of various concepts. Over 65 per cent students and 70 per cent in Class IX failed to solve 15 of 23 questions and 11 of 24 questions respectively.

In English, students were unable to write even five sentences on a simple topic like ‘my favourite game’. In the speaking test, 59 per cent of students failed to answer five questions after seeing a picture, and in the reading test, 49 per cent failed in reading comprehension.

In science, students were tested in vocabulary, reasoning and observation-based questions and it did not do any better as the average score of Class X students was at 41.91 per cent only.

Punjab’s education department is blaming the ‘no-detention policy’ under Right to Education Act (RTE), which does not allow detention of any student until class VII. Nirmal Kaur, the coordinator for maths, said, “Both Class IX and X students have shown poor results in the baseline test even as they were tested in lower-level syllabus. The results have highlighted poor basics, which is due to many reasons, including no-detention policy till Class VIII. There is also maths-phobia among students, which we are working on.”