TN school education dept orders devising action plan to improve pass percentage

CHENNAI: The department of School Education has ordered a plan of action for high and higher secondary schools in the state to improve the pass percentage and average marks for the next academic year.

The director of school education, S Kannappan, issued the circular here on Tuesday, urging to focus on providing enough support to schools and teachers to improve results – both the pass percentage and average marks, for the next academic year.

The circular noted that respective Chief Education Officers (CEOs) and district education officers (secondary) are to analyse the performance of their districts to identify suitable plans for improvement.

For rolling out an action plan, various reports have also been provided, including state/district/school performance reports.

Further, CEOs and DEOs have been directed to conduct review meetings with all high/higher secondary school heads, implement and monitor the action plan, and mobilise local resources to support schools.

This step is being taken following the recent State Level Achievement Survey (SLAS) conducted by the school education department.

The survey's analysis showed that in class 3, students achieved 67 per cent in Tamil, 69 per cent in English, 54 per cent in mathematics, and 76 per cent in EVS. And, in the class 5 survey, students achieved 76 per cent in Tamil, 51 per cent in English, 57 per cent in EVS and 57 per cent in mathematics.

Further, in the case of class 8, students achieved 52 per cent in Tamil, 39 per cent in English, 38 per cent in mathematics, 37 per cent in science, and 54 per cent in Social Science.

The achievement levels in Tamil, Mathematics, Science and Social Science are higher than the national and state averages. However, the SLAS report also highlighted significant improvement in language learning in classes 3 and 5, but reveals a concerning decline in mathematics and science by class 8.