The Hindu : Front Page : II PU pass percentage at 41.31 is the lowest in eight years

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II PU pass percentage at 41.31 is the lowest in eight years

Staff Reporter

Students’ writing skills may have suffered affecting their performance: experts

— Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

TEARS OF JOY: A II PU student breaks down with joy in the arms of her relative when she got to know her results, in Bangalore on Friday.

Bangalore: The pass percentage of the second Pre-University course examination held during March 2008 is 41.31, the lowest in the past eight years. It was 50.7 last year.

S.G. Hegde, Commissioner, Department of PU Education, told presspersons here on Friday that of the 5.72 lakh students who appeared for the examination, only 2.36 lakh had passed.

“Girls fared better than boys. Also, there is not much difference in terms of performance between students from urban and rural areas,” he added.

The pass percentage of students from urban areas is 41.28, and of rural candidates 41.04.

The pass percentage of boys is 35.45 and girls 48.65.

Concern

About the decline in the overall pass percentage, Mr. Hegde said that the pass percentage of the private candidates and repeaters was low, which had, in turn affected the overall percentage. “The pass percentage among freshers is 47.74, while the figure for private candidates and repeaters is 24.42 and 20.27 respectively.”

He said that the department was concerned about the decrease in the overall pass percentage. “There is a need to study and analyse (it). Those who wrote the examination this year were from the first batch of students who wrote the SSLC examination after the multiple choice questions were introduced. Experts felt that their writing skills may have suffered, which might have affected their performance,” he said.

Another reason could be the students’ tendency to take first year pre-university course lightly. “This is a worrying trend. We are looking at it seriously. We have directed teachers to tell first pre-university course students to concentrate and study well, failing which they will be retained in the same class. There may also be certain social issues that will need to be addressed,” he said.

Wide gap

The commissioner observed that the pass percentage in the Arts stream was 36.21, while it was 54.79 and 41.26 in the Commerce and Science streams.

English-medium students have fared better than those who wrote the examination in Kannada. The pass percentage of Kannada-medium candidates is 36.01, and that of the former, 47.41.

The pass percentage in government colleges is 41.10, while that in aided colleges is 49.06, unaided 49.99, bifurcated colleges 55.37 and corporation-run colleges 41.11.

Mr. Hegde said that Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Kodagu had secured the first three places in terms of pass percentage. “Many districts have retained their position. The results of students in Koppal, Bellary, Chitradurga, Bijapur, Gulbarga, Raichur and Bidar are poor,” he added.

He said 717 cases of malpractice were reported from across the State during this year’s examination. The maximum number was reported from Bijapur.

The department has proposed to hold the supplementary examination in June, Mr. Hegde said.

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