This year’s pass percentage in the SLC examinations was one of the best ever. With 68.47 per cent of the examinees passing this was 4.74 per cent higher than last year. Of the 342,632 candidates sitting for the exams 234,602 students managed

to pass the exams. Actually the results came as a surprise. There were those who felt that the pass percentage would be much lower due to adverse circumstances the students were facing prior to the examinations. Because of the instability in the country and bandhs and closures and other forms of protests closing schools for many days it was

bewildering that the schools managed to conduct classes and complete the courses. The students were hard put preparing for the examinations under the circumstances. The power outages must have hampered their studies, but the students somehow or the other came up with unexpectedly good performances. The high pass percentage could also

be attributed to the grace marks said to have been provided this year by the Office of the Controller of Examination (OCE). However, this should not be taken as the sole cause of the splendid performance of the students. It was in the end their perseverance and hard work that prevailed.

Here it should be mentioned that the present pass per cent is not much to gloat over. This should have been higher with about 40 per cent of the students still failing in the examinations. This shows that there is something wrong with the examination system in the country and it is losing much of the investments made in the education sector. On scrutinizing the results it will be found that private schools usually fare better than the

government schools as far as the passing rates are concerned. This reflects disparity between the education being provided and that the quality of education being imparted in government schools have to be drastically improved if we want to see a better performance in the SLC examinations in the future. Also looking at the passing figures 132,662 boys managed to pass the exams, whereas only 101,940 girl students did so. This shows a disturbing trend that girl students are not being provided equal initiatives and facilities as the boys. Generally girl students are expected to help out with the household chores while the boys are not which could be one of the reasons why fewer girls passed. It could also be because fewer girl students are enrolled in schools in comparison to the boys. This anomaly should be corrected for the good future of girl students.

Furthermore, this time around too the list of the toppers was not flashed by OCE. This has been the norm for a couple of years now. But the private schools come up with unofficial results of students topping the exams. The benefit of doing this is controversial raising the question as to whether schools are mere commercial enterprises or places for learning. Meanwhile, the concerned should learn from the results for there is no room for complacency. We could do with a higher number of students passing and for this the necessary infrastructure should be created including training more competent teachers that is the focus ought to be on quality eduction.