The intermediate education being imparted by the state-run colleges is in a mess in Jharkhand.
Besides lack of infrastructure in such colleges, the state education authorities are said to have failed to create interest among the students, who are more inclined to study the institutions affiliated to the CBSE.
No wonder, the students passing intermediate exams are far less than the pass outs of inter first year.
“Theory and practical classes are not regularly held in intermediate. Unlike CBSE, the teacher is unable to give individual attention to any student due to the huge population at the intermediate level. This leads to lack of interest among the students and as a result they usually fail,” said Khushboo Rani Toppo, an undergraduate Ranchi College student whose sister is studying at a local inter-college.
The city college principals also felt that there is an immediate need to develop the intermediate education system of the state which lacks in producing quality result.
Explaining the reason why intermediate education needs to be strengthened, Dr UC Mehta, Principal of Marwari College said, “There is a cut off percentage for quality students in CBSE. Even in the premier colleges like St. Xavier’s College the admission process is the same for intermediate entry. But, in colleges like ours we take students hailing from reserved quota, Below Poverty level (BPl) and rural background. These students are usually familiar with English language from class seven onwards. For us it is always a challenge to create good out of this large population of bad scorers.”
It is to be noted that the State government is executing the Central government’s scheme named ‘Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyaan’, but the intermediate result is not satisfactory.
“Though the minority colleges manage to create a student friendly environment concerning faculty, laboratory and classrooms but the condition is pathetic among other colleges and schools across the state. The low fee for intermediate makes all levels of students undergo intermediate studies instead of opting CBSE Class 11 and 12. The CBSE pattern is updated. We too had tried to adopt this method but failed to regularize a syllabus accordingly. In colleges, intermediate has still not been separated from degree courses. This makes difficult for us to focus only on intermediate classes in a session leading to unsatisfactory result,” said Dr KK Singh, Maulana Azad College.
On the other hand, JAC Secretary Sushil Kumar Roy said, “We consider our students at par with CBSE but problem lies in the experimental teaching method and strict academic calendar wherein we are unable to manage both. As for the faculty crunch and infrastructure obstacles, the State Government is working on to conduct recruitments in various categories and taking stock of the infrastructural needs. We are also working for arranging proper library and scientific equipments.”