Worried by spate of suicides, govt seeks to cut pressure, to allow kids to drop one ‘tough’ subject in Boards

- SANTOSH ANDHALE

In the backdrop of the spate of suicides by students aross the state and the growing concern among parents about coping with the pressure of studies, the Maharashtra Government is working out a new ‘best of five’ scheme of examination for the SSC. The scheme, being worked by the School Education Department in association with the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education, aims to relieve the pressure on students considerably by allowing them to choose five best subjects among the six which they can study and for which they can appear for the examination.

At present, students of the state board have to compulsorily appear for all six subjects, namely three languages – English, Marathi and Hindi – besides Mathematics, Social Sciences and Science.

The state has witnessed suicides by 13 students in the past 8 days and parents of the victims have attributed it to the pressure of studies as one of the compelling reasons for their suicides. The new concept is expected to be implemented in this year’s SSC board examination to be held in March 2010 and authorities said the decision will be taken shortly. The ‘best of five’ system is already in place in the CBSE and ICSE examinations and the idea to introduce this in the state was to reduce the pressure of exams from students at the same time bring parity between the state and other systems. Under the new ‘best of five’ concept, students will have a choice to drop any subject which they fear or about whom they are not confident of scoring in the examination. While, the languages – Marathi and English will be compulsory, students can choose three subjects out of four, namely Mathematics, Social Sciences, Science and Hindi.

The only difference between the best of five subjects pattern in CBSE exams and the state will be that, here in the state, students will have to compulsory appear for two languages, while in CBSE and ICSE only English is compulsory.

Students usually fear Mathematics or Science and the state board authorities said majority students fare badly in these two subjects.

“If a student were to drop Mathematics or Science, he would not qualify for admission in the science stream, but he can certainly seek admission in the Arts and Commerce stream,” a state education department official said.

State Education Minister, Balasaheb Thorat said, “The spate of suicides in the state has exposed the
fear students harbour about the board examinations and the subjects. We want to make the examinations as student-friendly as possible. We intend to take a decision on the ‘best of five’ scheme shortly. However, before we introduce the new system for the coming examination, we intend to hold meetings of parents all over the state to bring in consensus on the issue.”

State education Board chief, Vijaysheela Sardesai, confirmed that the state education department has asked the board to work out the ‘best of five’ subjects scheme for the coming March SSC examination.

Students will, however, compulsorily have to appear for two languages