Villagers lock up Mewat school after 39 fail
GURGAON: Irked over the extremely low pass percentage of students in the exams conducted by the Haryana Board of School Education (HBSE), the residents of Rwali village in Mewat district locked a government school on Wednesday. Only one out of 40 students of Class 10 in the school cleared the exams. Two got supplementary while the rest failed.
Around 7am, the parents and students locked the main school gate and did not allow the teachers to enter. They demanded transfer orders of the current teachers and hiring of dynamic teachers, who can take interest in the academics of the children.
Two teachers, Dharam Singh and Mohammad Ilyas, were immediately transferred on Wednesday after the villagers refused to unlock the gate. The block education officer and the station house officer of Ferozpur Jhirka reached the spot and took six hours to convince the parents to open the lock.
The school staff is shocked and said they had taken extra classes throughout the year and were sure of 100% result. They are unaware what went wrong. “Our teachers have worked very hard throughout the year. We are shocked that the students who did so well and were the toppers of class have failed,” Sadhna Sharma, headmistress of the school said.
The village, which is around 90 kilometers from Gurgaon, has made history. In 2016, only one student had passed and in year 2015 merely two students cleared the exams.
Zafar Khan, 16, who failed last year is the only student who passed this year with 68% of marks.
Parents and the villagers who were unhappy with the results locked the school gate on Wednesday morning and demanded transfer of the three teachers including the headmistress.
“Every year the school is repeating the same result. Despite several requests, the teachers are not focusing on the performance of the student. They do not even inform the parents how the child is doing throughout the year. We had met the teachers and they had promised 100% pass percentage,” said Dr Sarfudin, a parent.
According to Shiv Chand, village Sarpanch, of the total 40 students, who had appeared for the exams, 39 failed. There were 23 boys and 17 were girls.
“We had met the teachers yesterday (Tuesday) and had informed them that from Wednesday, we will lock the gates and will not allow teachers to enter due to the poor result. If only one student is passing them why do we need three teachers”, said Chand.
District education officer, Dinesh Shastri, said stern action would be taken against teachers of the school for the poor result.
The village has also planned to form a committee of young educated parents and siblings who will often visit the school and keep a check on the quality of the education.