27K flunk Punjabi, amid plan to start Chinese in schools

3.36 LAKH STUDENTS APPEARED IN THE BOARD EXAM THIS YEAR; PUNJABI PASS % DECLINED TO 1.77% AS AGAINST 93.35% LAST YEAR

MOHALI: At a time when the Punjab government is contemplating introduction of Chinese language Mandarin in state schools, over 27,000 students of Class 10 of the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) flunked in Punjabi paper.

Punjabi, being the mother tongue of the residents of Punjab, is a compulsory subject up to Class 10 and the official language of the state.

Among 3.36 lakh students that appeared in the board exams this year, as many as 27, 659 failed in the Punjabi paper. The pass percentage in Punjabi has declined to 91.77% this year as against 93.35% last year.

However, English seems to be the toughest language for the Class 10 students as more than one fourth of them failed in this paper. As many as 89,789 (27%) students flunked the English paper.

Hindi, the most spoken language in the country, also witnessed poor results than that of last year. While 92.46% students passed Hindi paper last year, the pass percentage slipped to 87% as 42,000 of the total of total 3.28 lakh students failed in the exam. Among other subjects, mathematics seems to be difficult for Punjab students as 60,000 (18%) students failed in the examination.

In January this year, the state education department’s baseline survey report (Class 1 to Class 5) had painted a grim picture of state of education, especially languages. The report highlighted that around 82% of primary school students failed to write Punjabi alphabets. In the test for Punjabi language, only 35.58% could clear the test. The survey was conducted in around 13,000 schools.

In the budget session of the state assembly in March, chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh had announced that Mandarin would now be introduced as optional subject in government schools at the senior secondary level. However, lawmakers from other parties had then slammed the government for introducing a foreign language when students are struggling with their mother tongue Punjabi, besides other languages Hindi and English.

WHAT EXPERTS SAY

Yog Raj Angrish, Panjab University’s head of department, Punjabi, said the condition of Punjabi as a subject is deplorable in rural as well as urban areas. “A lot of research has been done on this. During the past few years, the government has standardised the syllabus, but failed to standardise the teaching,” he said.

Angrish added, “One has to view Punjabi in schools as a subject not as mother tongue. The common mindset is that Punjabi is our mother tongue and every student feels he is master in it. However, the technical aspect of a language is ignored.”