Sitharan (Budgam), Jan 03: The pathetically poor performance of Government Secondary School, located in the foothills of Tosamaidan, in the recently declared class 10th results has clearly revealed the deep crisis of Kashmiri’s lower education system.
Falling in education zone Khag, a total of 16 students of Government Secondary School Sitharan had appeared in the annual matriculation examination; however, not even a single student got through. Ironically, no student could pass more than three subjects.
Significantly, the students of far off place like Sitharan — around 35 Kms from district headquarters and considered last village of Budgam, mostly rely on school education as they could hardly take tuitions.
The parents of students told Kashmir Images that among 16 students, some even failed in all the five subjects, while others passed one, two or three subjects.
They held the “permanent teaching staff” of the school responsible for the grim performance. “The subjects taught by regular teachers have nil result,” Bilal Ahmad, a local said.
In contrast, he said that most of the students have passed English and Urdu subjects. “It’s because of the hard work done by contractual teachers that students were able to clear English and Urdu,” Ahmad added.
Manzoor Ahmad Sheikh, whose nephew also showed dismal performance, trained guns on a teacher for playing a “disastrous role in ruining” the school.
“The teacher would often ask students to get chicken, beans, ghee and other stuff from their houses. We would give with open hands thinking he is building the future of our wards. But today we regret,” Sheikh said. “Sir would take students to Tosamaidan on tour for several weeks together.”
Kashmir Images also contacted the said teacher for his comment. “Students were not punctual. Even I was requesting them to come to school,” he said, while refuting the “baseless” allegations. “I’m the lone person in whole district who has availed only four casual leaves from December 2017 till date. I never sought anything from students.”
He said that last year one of his students secured 476 marks out of 500. “Why they [who made allegations] are not saying this thing?” he said.
Meanwhile, besides teachers, few locals blame students for not studying with “zeal and enthusiasm”. “Our students did not do hard work. They along with teachers are responsible for the poor performance,” villagers said. However, others contest their claim saying “had teachers and education department taken their role seriously, the results would have been different”.
For instance, a student had got 444 marks out of 500 in 9th class from a private school. In 10th class he was admitted in Sitharan School and his results are not different from other students.
Further, Kashmir Images learnt that school has many loopholes which concerned administration has failed to redress. Like, the students said that for many months, their school was functioning without a Math teacher. “When you don’t have a teacher of a certain subject, how could you pass that very subject?” asked a student.
Sources in the school informed that education department has taken this institution for granted. “Our school has a roll of 154 students with only eight teachers and is functioning without a full-fledged head master from the last three years. Five teaching staff posts are also vacant,” they said. “Never ever any concerned official including Chief Education Officer, Deputy Commissioner, and Director Education visited here.”
When contacted, Zonal Education Officer Khag, Fareed Ahmad blamed students for the poor results. “As per the reports of concerned staff, students would not regularly attend their classes,” he said. “Now we will be taking remedial classes for the students who failed in the examination.”
While Chief Education Officer Budgam, Rouf Ahmad Shahmiri held “negligence of academic staff responsible” for zero result.
Now, it would be interesting to see who will take action against whom? And it is for sure, every concerned person is responsible for the zero percent result of Sitharan School.
