Why do many students fail?
20/06/2015 18:51
Why do many students fail? The reasons are very intricate and multidimensional. In simple words, it’s the flaw in the curriculum which is not met by our educational system as it demands to be achieved.
We all know that no other educational activities in Nepal attracts as much public attention, sympathy and temptation as the annual School Leaving Certificate Examinations (SLC). This year is the eighty second session of SLC where about 5.7 lacs students across the country participated and out of which about 47 percentage succeed in their last ever number scoring SLC result.
The SLC assumes its great significance because the success opens the windows of opportunities for higher studies and widens the prospect for employment whereas failure narrows the options for progress. It’s an unfortunate to quote that the failure is more common than success with high rates among students from public schools, rural area, backward communities and more girls than boys, leading to huge wastage of the resources invested.
Nation’s prosperity and success being closely related to young human capital, depends on the quality of its education. It is therefore the countries like Nepal have embraced education as a chief instrument in making policies. Similarly, educational policy has immense role in infrastructural development, economic growth, social inclusion and justice, scientific advancement. Also, education is believed to cure all sort of illnesses of today’s disturbed society and transform them to superior ones.
I also appeared in SLC examination in 2057 BS with hope of scoring better result. As I was the usual topper at my school, my parents, teachers and friends had noble expectations on me. We were the first batch of new curriculum with 800 full marks in-total. During that period, board toppers were treated like celebrities and the better collages awarding them with scholarships. But unfortunately my name was enlisted among the 68 % of failures as I could not get my symbol number in the list of pass students. The Gorkhapatra national daily only used to be the medium for determining the success or failure in very first day. My number was missing even in internet which I hardly got access. The Final Result – I was fail. All my dreams collapse all of sudden. I was vacant, speechless and felt like I was abandoned by the fortune. However, there was a narrow hope but strong faith inside me. Many flight of ideas flushed into my mind whether my answer sheet was lost, or somebody might have played foul to make me fail. I waited for the marks ledger sheets for few days and I found that I was failed in Compulsory Mathematics with twelve out of hundred. Then, I was confident that it’s a mistake. I completed all the procedures for retotalling the marks which took almost 3 months. In meantime, the new session in college had started but I was unqualified. I explained my conditions with a college principal which made him to approve my admission. Probably for the first time in history someone got admitted in intermediate level without passing SLC. Result of retotalling provided me formal key of the Iron-gate. I passed with distinction and got scholarship both in intermediate and MBBS (Ministry of Education). Now I am doing my doing my post graduate degree i.e. Doctor in Medicine (MD) in Institute of Medicine.
Yearly, as we all analyse the outcomes of SLC, we see more failures than success. Success is bestowed with cashes, scholarships, admirations whereas the majority of students who swallow failures suffer from variety of agonies, depressions, suicidal tendencies and many more. The failures need to be addressed properly to prevent a young and energetic capital from being wasted. The failures need to be counselled to prevent from emotional, psychological, spiritual or social breakdown. The student should not lose hope and commit incorrigible mistakes event the scores are as unexpected. Most importantly, there should be measures to inhibit as much as the failures by revising the curriculum or by strengthening the educational manpower. Curriculum revision based on vocational training should be encouraged to reduce the unemployment. We have to wait for the outcome of grading system which will be commencing next year.
