For a long time schools from Shillong held sway over the results of the Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) exams. In the past few years, however the results have been equitably shared by schools from other districts. This time the first place was taken by a private school in Tura, West Garo Hills. Of the top 20 positions (a total of 37 students with many scoring the same marks), 22 schools are from Shillong and the rest 15 are from different districts of Meghalaya. As many as 6 students shared the 18th position while the 6th, 14th and 15th positions were shared amongst three and the 9th, 12th, 16th, 17th 19th 20th position were shared between two students.
Altogether, 627 schools sent their students for the SSLC this year. The pass percentage in the past four years averaged 53 %. This year the pass percentage slipped to 50.31 % perhaps because of the confusion created by the pandemic. In terms of pass percentage, West Jaintia Hills scored 69.96 %, East Jaintia Hills 69 % and East Khasi Hills 68.94 %. This also goes to show that education in the other districts is improving or that meritorious students are being retained in the districts instead of moving to Shillong
The results as a whole leave much to be desired. Out of 627 schools, 73 managed to get 100 % pass percentage. At least 7 schools mostly in Garo Hills had a zero pass percentage. To think that a student comes up to Class X and is unable to scale this last hurdle of securing a minimum of 30 marks in 5 or 6 subjects means there is something wrong in the education system or the teaching-learning method. In Meghalaya, not much investment has been made in the remedial teaching methods to address the weak links that students encounter in certain subjects, more often Maths and Science. Remedial teaching is essentially identifying slow learners and providing them with the necessary help and guidance to enable them to overcome their problems, after identifying their areas of difficulty. A remedial teaching class is meant to improve a learning skill or rectify a particular problem area in a student.
Remedial teaching makes education more personalised as it also looks at the psycho-social conditions that hamper learning for a particular child. True, remedial teaching is a challenge in a class of 50-60 students. Hence extra classes, after school hours or before school starts is the way out. Students may not be weak in all subjects; in fact they may be good in some but fare poorly in others. The purpose of teaching is not to treat students as a homogenous group with the same learning capabilities. Like they say, every child is unique..