Vellore finishes at the bottom again with 89.98 per cent

When pointed out that Vellore was placed below Tiruvannamalai at 29, Vellore CEO S Mars said compared to last year, they managed to improve the pass percentage by 1.14. “We have identified that the problem could be in about 20 government schools in the district,” he added.

Among government schools, Villupuram that has 29,529 students in 353 schools was ranked 26th while Vellore was ranked 28th. “One reason could be the size of the district, as the distance from Arakkonam at one end to Tirupatthur at the other is more than 200 km, which would not help education officials inspect schools effectively,” said JACTO-GEO State high-level committee member SN Janardhanan.

When asked how Villupuram district with more students fared better, he said, “We do not know the ground realities in that district.” What flummoxed officials was that even agrarian Tiruvannamalai, with 21,295 students in 325 schools, was ranked above Vellore among government schools despite Vellore having better infrastructure.

“We are happy that we have climbed up 10 places in the last three years. We see problems in only 100 government schools, which will be rectified. The 440 excess graduate teachers we have will be posted to these schools to ensure that results improve further. We are also concentrating on primary education to ensure that LSRW (learning, speaking, reading and writing) skills are upgraded in all students so that there are no students who cannot read or write Tamil,” said Tiruvannamalai CEO V Jayakumar.