‘No child should be left behind, goal is to ensure 100% results in SSLC’

Principal Secretary of School Education and Literacy, V. Rashmi Mahesh, said, “No child should be left behind. Our goal is to ensure 100% results in SSLC,” while addressing teachers and officers of the School Education Department in Shivamogga on Saturday.

The neighbouring States, she said, had recorded more than 95% pass percentage in SSLC. “Karnataka has all the flagship institutes, including the IISC, National Law School, NIMHANS, the highest number of medical colleges, and many more. But the number of Kannada students studying there is less. We need to enable our students to clear the SSLC and get into higher education. Hardly 36% of our students get into higher education,” the officer stated.

“The SSLC examination is a means to an end. It is not an examination to set the merit but to allow students to go ahead. We need to treat it as a qualification examination. In Bengaluru, even a lift operator needs an SSLC certificate,” she said.

The results in SSLC in past years showed that a majority of those who failed in the exams were from SC-ST, other backward classes, and minorities. “If those students pass the exams and take up higher education, the status of the families will also improve,” the officer opined.

Incentives

The officer said that the department would offer incentives to well-performing teachers. Those who showed improvement in enrolment, results, training and growth in teaching would get the opportunity to explore training programmes across the globe. “We will send them abroad for higher exposure. We have funds for such activity,” the officer said.

Similarly, she said, the department would take strict action against those who fail to perform. “We are hopeful that our teachers will shine”, she added.