Recently, an analysis was done that stated that more than 65 lakh students fail in class 10 and class 12 board exams in 2023. It includes 56 state boards and 3 national boards. The report revealed that more girls appeared in class 12 in government school, but more boys appeared in private schools.  

Overall, the difference in pass rates between schools with varying management styles also favors girls more than 6%.  

Approximately, 33.5 lakh students of class 10 students were unable to advance to the next grade. 28 lakh students failed, while 5.5 lakh did not show up. According to a senior MoE (Ministry of Education) official, this is one of the reasons for the lower retention rate and Gross Enrollment Ration (GER) at the upper secondary level. 

Relatively, around 32.4 lakh students in class 12 did not finish the grade. Out of these, 27.2 lakh failed, and 5.2 lakh did not show up for the exams.  

The national board’s class 10^th student failure rate was 6%, compared to a much higher 16% for state boards. 18% of state boards and 12% of national boards failed in class 12^th. 

The ministry representatives observed that both classes’ open school performance was subpar.  

The Madhya Pradesh board had the highest percentage of class 10^th student failures, followed by Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. In class 12, MP and UP were found to have the highest rates of student failure. 

“Overall performance of students in 2023 declined in comparison with the previous year. This could be due to a larger syllabus for examination,” officials said. 

Gender Biasness 

In government schools, more girls than boys showed up for the class 10 and 12 board exams. However, this trend might point to a gender bias in parents’ spending on education. Despite this, girls performed better than boys in every category. Compared to 75.6 percent  of boys, 87.5 percent of girls in private schools passed the class 12 exam. As a result, compared to four lakh girls over nine lakh boys failed the exam. 

Why are parents still practicing gender equality? Girls also have the right to better quality of education. They’ve proved from day one that they can achieve anything if they want to. Why stop them from touching the sky?  

Especially in India, it is thought that one day their daughter is going to get married and move to another home, so there’s no need to spend money on their education. If some family is not financially stable, they’ll still put their sons in better schools and their daughter in government schools. As they somehow think that only boys can run the household financially.  

What Could be the Possible Reasons for Failing?  

Huge Syllabus 

Wide and complex syllabus may provide too much material or concepts in a particular amount of time. Students may fail to give adequate attention and time to study. Hence, they end up acquiring a poor understanding and poor mastery of contents.  

Inadequate Teaching Methods 

This term describes a practice that does not constitute an effective level of excellence in assisting students’ learning. It can consist of incomplete engagement approaches, old or irrelevant teaching-learning techniques, or the mere inability to factor in a range of the students’ learning profile. Poor ways of explaining concepts and understanding can impact some students’ educational performance poorly.  

Tests 

In this regard, illustrative assessments that assess the students’ content knowledgeand understanding are often called “tests.” Sometimes the functionality of a test can lead to stress and anxiety resulting from high stakes or poor quality of questions. Since exams may not be well-aligned to the curriculum or they may not be designed to cater to the different abilities of students, it does not present a fair picture of what the students really know or even what they are capable of. 

Smartphones 

The use of a smartphone is not good in a learning environment, especially when used by a student.  Unfortunately, they may be using them for social media, playing games, etc. This could result in spending less time focusing on the course material. Eventually, it would undermine their ability to perform well academically. 

Even when pandemic struck many things including education went online. Some children were able to cope with this and some didn’t. Online studies are one of the main reasons why students cannot focus on studying properly.  

Increased stress and anxiety can also impact the ability to focus on studies. Nowadays, there is tremendous pressure from society and families to score good which could lead to unnecessary stress.