The Delhi government will seek the help of external agencies to conduct special mathematics classes before the commencement of Board exams to improve the exam results, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said on Monday. The Delhi cabinet gave its approval to the proposed ‘Maths Teaching Project’ by the Directorate of Education.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the government has analysed the results of Delhi government schools and found that students are able to score above 95 percent in all subjects other than mathematics and science. The results in these two subjects have gone down, with students scoring less than 76 percent in mathematics.

“The Delhi government has decided to hold extra coaching classes in schools so that the results in the subjects that are lagging behind can be brought on par with the scoring subjects. Extra coaching classes will also be held for students who have obtained compartment or have flunked in the board examinations,” Kejriwal said.

Sharing details about the project, Sisodia said it is aimed at improving the result of Class X in the current session, and subsequently also if needed, by focusing on the teaching of mathematics. The proposal by the Directorate of Education is aimed at seeking approval for engaging external agencies to assign their resource persons for conducting special mathematics classes before the board exam and thereafter for preparation of compartment exam if required, he said.

The external resource persons will supplement the efforts of teachers in targeted schools. Sisodia, who also holds the education portfolio, said a total of 342 schools have been initially shortlisted, having records of low maths results (7.02 percent to 55 percent) last year. The project will start in January 2020 covering approximately 30,000 students of Class 10 of Delhi government schools. “Special classes will be organised for them in mathematics. Last year in these schools, 30,497 students appeared and the pass percentage was just 41.89 percent,” he said.

The job of the external agencies would be to customize the content to help students prepare for the board exam. The package is proposed to be of 100 hours covering important topics to be completed before the board exams. Practice material will also be provided by external agencies. 

During 2018-19, about 1.66 lakh students from DoE appeared for the CBSE’s class X Board Exam out of which 37,073 failed in Maths.

Source: PTI