Zero Failure in Board Examinations: An Action Plan

“A nation is advanced in proportion as education and intelligence spread among the masses. The chief cause of India’s ruin has been the monopolizing of the whole education and intelligence of the land among a handful of men, if we are to rise again, we shall have to do it by spreading education among the masses. The only service to be done for our lower classes of people is to give them education to develop individuality” says Swami Vivekananda.

Of course, this quote was for that India in which the gurukulas imparting useful education catering to the heterogeneity of our country’s diverse needs were abolished by the foreign regime imposing an education that suited a different agenda of turning out “your obedient servants”

Those who depended on such skills to make them wanted in society were gradually pushed into a lower-class status. So gradually the concept of mass education of a uniform syllabus emerged and hence the emphasis conveyed by the visionary sage gains the utmost importance.

The various commissions of education realized this and our national target in the field of education was set to give every man, woman irrespective of social status, education, a 100% provision of education with a view to producing individuals each independent of the other in solving his or her problems.

Given its diversity it is inevitable that our class rooms drawing students across such strata are essentially heterogenous.

Factors influencing heterogeneity

Individual differences in potentialities apart, home background does have a great influence on the educational achievements and continuance of a child in school. A child neglected at home due to various factors, from social backwardness to psychological imbalances in the family is in majority cases bound to be a problem child and each class drawn as per mass education criteria is to have at least one third of such children.

One cannot speak of 100% education if a time bound 100% qualification of prescribed standards could not be achieved. Thus, the target of 100% pass percentage or equivalently “zero failure” in the educational system is only concomitant with the theory of mass education which otherwise would turn out to be a tall order.

Plan of action

A personal experiment with the board exam students of tenth class in mathematics would not be out of place to mention at this juncture and perhaps could suggest an action plan to be adopted at all levels in all subjects.

First and foremost, weak students in mathematics were identified. Their weakness was owing to

1. An accumulated ignorance over the years in basic Arithmetical operations like even addition and multiplication not to speak of square roots and such operations.

2. A total unawareness of the various nuances of mathematical language and their correlation to the ordinary medium of instruction.

3. Lack of patience to attempt a problem and complete it successfully.

4. Lack of interest to sit through a mathematics class, a consequence of general phobia and misconceptions towards the subject.

The last three points (2-4) were in fact prevalent from among even average students, thus rendering them much below average whereas students marked as sure failures had a pronounced deficiency of the category elaborated in point 1 above as well.

While a remedial action adopted for deficiencies listed out in 2-4 above geared the intelligent very fast and the average slightly towards self-confidence and helped them tackle mathematical problems better. Their analytical thinking improved considerably. Very slow learners showed an eagerness to participate and improve as well even though their basic arithmetical inadequacies were still an impediment. The eagerness was mainly attributable to the fact that they began to see glimpses of some life in mathematics as against their struggle with its bare lifeless numbers in the past.

Motivated by this eagerness shown by the student, a strategy was adopted (in the year 1996-97) comprising the following techniques so that they could pass with at least the minimum 33% as prescribed by the board.

The general pattern and trends of Board exam papers were analyzed and based on that in each topic minimum levels attainable by the students were discerned as detailed out below:

#	Topic	Minimum levels based on board expectations
1	Linear Equations	​Direct applications of algebraic conditions for unique, nil and infinite solutions. Simple solutions of systems of equations.
2	Quadratic Equations	Conditions on coefficients linked to nature of roots.​ Simple calculations of roots.
3	Rational Expressions	Basic properties of rational expressions and their applications on the problems.​
4	Geometry	Only theorems (about 15 in number) and some important problems quite often repeated taught with the same emphasis as on theorems with reinforcement.​
5	Computing	Identity of symbols in a flow-chart.​ Simple typical algorithms and flow-charts for fill-in-the-blanks exercises.
6	Statistics	Mean, mode and median. Crude, death rate, birth rate etc. Index numbers.​
7	Mensuration	Direct applications of formulae in simple problems of area, volume, etc.​

An assurance of scoring 5-6 marks in each of these helped the children to aim between 35-40% from a measly 02 or 03 that they had been getting till then. Hence stereo typed problems in each of these were assigned and the students supervised either personally or with the help of bright students in the class. By motivation the students were encouraged to self-learning and evaluating techniques, thereby reducing the need for supervision.

They were advised to leave the difficult areas and concentrate on the simpler as listed above. The result was remarkable in that a 100% pass percentage was achieved and some of the supposedly sure failure passed with a decent 45 or even 50%. What is more! One such student even expressed his desire to continue mathematics in Xl class if allowed to opt for the same.

Such techniques adopted to mechanical topics like simple differentiation, matrices, statistics etc. in class XII also paid rich dividends with a student securing only in 4% in pre-board ending up with 42% in AISSCE.

A pertinent question

Should such efforts be confined to only those teaching board classes? If only each teacher in each class should work with the weak students to achieve such minimum levels, would there be the unfortunate situation of a student of class 10, being deficient in basic arithmetic operations which form the core of primary mathematics?

If only from the lower classes, teachers should direct the students into recognizing that even mathematics has a language, has a meaning, life and is not just bare, dry lifeless numbers would there be students of X class wrought with phobia and disinterest about the most interesting subject? If only from the lower classes, teachers should reduce the dependence on paper and pen and increase the mental computational ability by reviving the mental sums - trends of the past, should teach the interesting properties and behaviour of numbers that could simplify long, cumbersome calculations, would we not be discussing 100% I-divisioners or distinction holders instead of 100 % pass? Shall we not be discussing quality and not just quantity?

There is a general tendency to blame the promotion policy and the contribution of project and assignment to the dilution of performance. More than the students perhaps we teachers and administrators are dependent on these to exaggerate our performance! If in one year a teacher teaching X class is able to overcome the accumulated ignorance of the previous nine classes and achieve the coveted 33%, it should not be very difficult for the teachers teaching the lower classes to achieve the same at their levels. Only a sincerity of purpose is required.

It would not help to do away with projects and assignments because they serve as supplementary aids tour classroom teaching. For instance a solid of revolution can be constructed with a motor. If a right triangular lamina is attached to the motor through a peg and allowed to rotate the student gets to actually witness the plane lamina generating a cone. This can help even an under performer in class 8 to understand the cone through the dimensions of the triangle and tackle problems pertaining to it.

A simple classroom assignment in which 35 students draw 35 different circles and verify the constant ratio π, of circumference to diameter, measuring the circumference with a thread and observing that each child had obtained values always close to 3.14 could be the foundation for concepts of limits and approximations. It helps to convince the child that what is true for 35 circles would be true for all the circles.

What is true for Mathematics is true for all subjects!

In class Xll commerce, a child poor in accountancy on inquiry came up with difficulty in additions of huge numbers which constitute an integral part of all problems. When diagnosed and remedy administered it enabled him to pass with a 33%.

Science and Social Science

In class X another subject with heavy casualties surprisingly happens to be social studies. The main reason for this is the vastness of the various topics in contrast to the pointed questions demanding precise, to the point answers. Thus, it is the very short type of questions which play the Waterloo for the children! It will therefore do well for the social studies teachers especially history teachers to construct such specific questions topic wise exhaustively and maintain a question bank. Students can be encouraged to read the text and prepare questions to the content. This enables them to question the answer which essentially is the talent required to comprehend any text.

In science too the experimental and inductive approach to concepts as adopted by text books could no doubt be used for teaching practices but from the examination point of view precise questions exhaustive and comprehensive should be constructed and a question bank maintained. The present trend of the science question paper is to lay emphasis on the conceptual aspect. For instance, a metal extraction is asked by specifying the metal implicitly through its unique characteristics, or an element specified by a special method of extraction and the students have to identify Mr. X. It is therefore important to draw the attention of the students to specific unique characteristics of such elements and compounds, animals and plants etc.

There was a question which described the symptoms of disease and asked to name the disease and prescribe a medicine. So, a child should know both the sides of an equation. He must be able to traverse from RHS to LHS and vice versa. Only then could his diagnostic abilities be increased and consequently be a good administrator of correct remedies to problems.

Role of Languages

The languages could actually be a unifying factor by exercising the critical analysis of the nuances of the language especially in poetry, by intense training in comprehension exercises, translation (which has ceased to exist in the present-day curriculum but very essential for language development) so that a child is well equipped to meet the challenges of logic in mathematics, science and even social sciences.

Yes, there was in a question paper of social studies a question for only two marks that required the students to illustrate with two examples India's cultural unity in diversity!

All these require infinite patience on the part of the teacher who should make utmost effort to understand the concepts so thoroughly as to be able to break them down into simplest fragments which could enable him/her to come down to the level of the students anytime, any level with the utmost ease.

While a teacher should not sacrifice the quality teaching for the sake of fast learners he should also not lack the patience to deal with the very slow learners, rising them at least to the minimum pass percentage lest they should feel left out in the educational process.

The bright students have a tendency to eclipse the average and below average by shouting the answers to all questions put forth by a teacher. But this tendency should be curbed and every question should begin with the weakest students of the class. This would not dampen the enthusiasm of the bright learner if only the teacher could be innovative enough to give him leadership roles, especially, making him totally responsible for his group members in the quality of their performance assigning one or two under achievers to a good student, encouraging him to play the teacher. It is easier for the under achievers to shed inhibitions faster in his peer group than with his master and benefit.

Instead of practicing a monotonous teaching method oriented towards the average, the teacher should have the knack of keeping the bright happy and satisfied while simultaneously making the weak feel at home with the rest of the class by not neglecting them. With such techniques perhaps 'ZERO FAILURE' is not a far cry.

A Principal's role in all these would be to motivate all his teachers towards such attitudes to teaching, provide administrative support in their endeavor to achieve zero failure in their subjects. The Principal acts as the bridge between the parents and the teachers. Parents have to be taken into confidence whenever special remedial measures are administered for the students and their co-operation sought to have a continuous, constant monitoring at home as well.

Thus, training in selective topics, giving special attention and motivation, pairing of an underachiever with a bright student, providing rigorous practice questions to solve, devising, administering tests and monitoring, aiding self-reliance, removing teacher dependence, simple methods of teaching for conceptual clarity, gaining parental co-operation would generally sum up •the action plan that would successfully lead schools to Zero failure and which when constantly achieved for all classes, within a half-a-dozen years help them emerge as institutions of excellence where 100% meritorious performance could be envisaged.