The Uttarakhand Vidhyalayi Shiksha Parishad (UVSP) popularly called Uttarakhand Board is consistently loosing students to the CBSE and ICSE boards. In class X examination alone the board has lost more than 25000 students in last five years. In class XII too the Uttarakhand board has steadily lost students over the years.
The data reveals that 178738 students were enrolled in class X examination in the year 2013, the number dropped to 173226 in the year 2015 while in this year 153813 students are slated to appear in the examination (See box). A similar story is repeated in the class XII also where 143913 students were enrolled in the year 2015 while 135650 students had shown interest in the board in year 2016. This year the number has further declined to 133417.
The experts list a variety of factors responsible for this decline in interest of students in the state board. They cite the lack of infrastructure in government schools, flawed transfer policy of teachers, politicization of teaching community, migration from villages and lack of discipline in the government schools as reasons for this loss in student numbers. Many schools located in the far flung and inaccessible areas face acute shortage of teaching staff. The teachers who are posted in these schools take frequent leaves and lobby for their transfers to the places of their choices. The school building and other facilities in the government schools are not improving even though the huge budget of state education department keeps on increasing every year. In last few years a new trend is emerging in which more and more private schools are opening in the rural areas due to which the student count in government schools is declining.
The private schools seldom opt for the state board as they find more liberty and convenience with the central boards.
Pradeep Rawat, a retired teacher said that most of the private schools opt for Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and Indian Council of Secondary Education (ICSE) board due to the better curriculum and textbooks. The Principal of Government Inter College (GIC), Gaziawala, B P Bamola said that there is a fashion among the parents to get their wards enrolled in CBSE or ICSE board affiliated schools. He said that the curriculum and textbooks of the Uttarakhand board are similar to CBSE.
The Secretary of UVSP, Manoj Simalti accepted that the decreasing interest of students is a cause of concern. He said that the curriculum of the board is in sync with other boards and a scientific method of awarding marks is followed.