The School Leaving Certificate (SLC) is considered as a foundation of all future careers of students. Thus, there is a tendency to judge the students’ ability on the basis of their performance in SLC examinations. Conducting SLC examinations in an incident-free manner has become an uphill task for the concerned authorities. Likewise, the poor performance of government schools resulting in shrinking pass percentage every year has raised questions regarding the quality of education imparted in schools run by the government. The results show a huge gap in pass percentage between the community schools and private schools. While private schools are excelling every year the performance of community schools is decreasing. Every year millions are spent in the name of quality education but the performance of students is not satisfactory.

The SLC results of 2014 raised several questions regarding the performance of community schools. The results showed a wide gap in the pass percentage between the private schools and community schools. The average pass percentage of private schools was 93 per cent while the pass percentage in the government schools stood at just 28 per cent. Out of the 329 schools that scored nil in last year’s SLC examinations 281 were community schools.

The poor performance in the SLC exams in community schools prompted the government to issue directives to the regional and districts education offices to initiate actions against those schools having nil results.

Over the years a number of committees have been formed to investigate the reason behind the poor SLC pass percentage and to improve the quality of education. Most of such committees have suggested overhauling the whole education system pointing out flaws in the education system itself.

The most common reasons responsible for the poor show in SLC examinations are unnecessary political intervention in the education sector, closure of schools due to bandhs and strikes called by various groups, stereotyped teaching methods, poorly skilled teachers and the lack of professionalism among those involved in teaching, frequent change in the education policy and curriculum, unavailability of textbooks mainly in far flung rural areas and faulty examination system. This year’s SLC results are going to be published within a few days. Officials responsible for regulating the education sector have long been promising to improve the quality of education in schools.