Education declining standard

By Khalid Khattak

AN ANALYSIS of results of intermediate and bachelor’s degree exams announced recently exposes the deteriorating standard of arts education as the pass percentage of science students is higher than those learning the humanities.Interestingly, the number of students attempting exams in humanities is much higher than that of science subjects. According to the intermediate results announced by the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE), Lahore, the total number of candidates who appeared in pre-medical and pre-engineering groups was 9,900 out of which 7,601 remained successful at a percentage of 76.78.On the other hand, 64,066 candidates appeared in the humanities and other groups and only 25,600 passed the exam at an overall pass percentage of 39.96. Similarly, the results of BA/BSc annual exam announced by the Punjab University (PU) this year show poor performance of social sciences students. According to details, this year 151,932 candidates had appeared in the PU’s BA examination, out of which only 34,010 could get through the exam at a percentage of 22.39. Whereas 18,418 students had appeared in the BSc exam and 7,339 got successful at 39.85 pass percentage.The statistical analysis also brings to light the poor performance of most of the government colleges as far as results of arts-education are concerned. The results also show that the performance of arts students in the subject of English is poorer than those studying sciences.The academic circles are very critical of deteriorating standard of arts education. They say study of the social sciences should also be encouraged because they are as important as the sciences. They believe that lack of commitment on part of teachers and students is one of the contributing factors for poor results.It is generally observed that most of the science students join private tuition centres and academies where they pay subjectwise fees. On an average, an academy charges Rs 800 to Rs 1,500 per month for each science subject. Keeping in view mushroom growth of coaching centres and inclination of students and their parents towards such “knowledge-houses”, it can be said without any doubt that they play a major role in enhancing the performance of students during exams. Educationists and academicians also believe that the increasing tuition-culture is evidence of the fact that public sector colleges are not fulfilling their responsibilities owing to which students have to rely on private coaching for securing good grades in exams.It is yet another reality that most of the public school/college teachers who teach science subjects are running their own tuition centres which are also attended by their college’s students, privately. Academic circles are of the view that the government should take notice of the increasing trend and it should make all-out efforts to provide quality education to the students at public sector schools and colleges. They also stress the need of encouraging teachers to deliver the best with commitment and dedication.

Source: The News International
Monday, August 25, 2008