CG to adopt new retention system to check dropout rate

Raipur, October 06

With an objective to check dropout rate in standard X, Chhattisgarh board of secondary education (CGBSE) is planning to adopt new retention system under which a student who fails would be exempted from appearing in any two subjects, which he has cleared, next year. The board’s exam result committee has recently framed this new method and forwarded it to executive-financial committee for approval.

Usually, when a student fails in standard X, he has to appear in all subjects next year. In Chhattisgarh, the dropout rate being more in rural pockets as compared to urban areas; majority of the students, who fail in standard X, prefer to earn instead of pursuing studies in the absence of any career guidance facility in their regions.

The dropout rate is more in government schools as compared to private ones as the former lack basic infrastructure of education from teaching staff to classrooms & libraries to drinking water & toilet facilities.

The scenario is worst in tribal belts, especially in naxal-infested Bastar division. The board sources admit that the dropout rate is very high in Dantewada, Narayanpur, Bijapur, Sukma and Kondagaon districts. 

Notably, the school studies frequently hamper due to bandh calls by Maoists in Bastar. In the absence of government, the teachers do not want to go to schools located in remote areas. Hence, the students of high school usually migrate to other places along with their families in search of subsistence. The tribal people have also lost faith on teachers in wake of gangrape of 43 minors in Jhaliyamari (Kanker district) – the incident that had shocked the nation a couple of months back.

Expressing his concern over increasing dropout rate after standard X, the board chairman T Radhakrishnan says the new retention system can prove effective in linking students to education.

One of the board members too thinks that the students will surely feel less burdened with the implementation of new retention system and they would concentrate in securing better marks in rest of the subjects.

This system is already being adopted by Chhattisgarh state open school (CGSOS) in slightly different form. The students, who appear in standard Xth or XIIth exams of CGSOS but fail, are exempted from appearing in the subjects they pass in subsequent attempts.