If science holds the key to future, Jharkhand seems to have missed the point which is very well suggested by the enrolment figure for intermediate examination of 2015. To the dismay of the many, enrolment in 2015 was lowest since 2010 coupled by an erratic pass percentage over the years. However, Commerce is slowly appearing a favorite course of students with upward trend of number of students getting enrolled at the Intermediate level.
Even as enrolment touched an all time high of 1,08,854 in 2012 there has been a continuous slide from the level ultimately hitting nadir in 2015 with 80,831 enrolments. Interestingly, performance was too wayward between the mentioned years however the Jharkhand Academic Council managed to salvage pride in 2015 with slight upward growth in the pass percentage. Notably, enrolment remained at near equal level in last three years.
Notwithstanding the trend of waning interest in Science in general, left-wing-extremism (lWE) hit areas exhibited willingness to look into the future with scintillating performance against all odds and challenges of gun wielding ultras. Extremist hit areas—Chatra, Palamau, Godda and latehar—were among the best performing districts in Intermediate Science examination in 2015 whereas the four top districts slipped down the performance chart for Commerce result.
The top performing districts registered 82.51 per cent, 81.830 per cent, 77.24 per cent and 77.05 per cent correspondingly whereas the four better performing lWE districts recorded 78.37 per cent, 50.12 per cent, 58.42 per cent and 78.14 per cent respectively. Among other bastions of ultras-- lohardaga, Garhwa and Gumla-- registered an impressive performance against all odds. But there were few exceptions also as Khunti and Simedega lagged behind among lWE areas.
Science’s gain for the moment appears to the Commerce’s gain as preference for the course swelled to 49595- second high since 2006. The highest number of enrolment for Commerce stream was recorded in 2012 when 54566 examinees registered for the examination. Interestingly, preference for Commerce is also reinforced with good results since 2006.
If Science could be the way for emancipation of students of lWE-areas, Commerce is the favourite course for mostly urbane population of Jharkhand. Among all the 24 districts, Hazaribagh, Ranchi, Ramgarh, Kodarma and Dhanbad topped in Intermediate Commerce examination as the average result notched up beyond 80 per cent. Notably, Hazaribagh topped the chart with the best performance of 87.45 per cent in 2015.
The five top performing districts in Commerce scored a pass percentage of 69.73 per cent, 58.41 per cent, 59.31 per cent, 62.58 per cent and 59.78 per cent correspondingly. The results were declared on Monday at the JAC office by Minister Human Resource Development, Neera Yadav.