My Deadening Nightmare

Student toppers with examination coordinator

May 15, 2014 - It was the day when our first unit test results were declared. The results were declared by our examination coordinator, Mr. Pema Tshewang, during morning assembly. He read out the overall passed percentages, class-wise failed percentages and the names of the class toppers and their percentages. Hearing the overall pass percentage of 48 and class-wise failed percentage of 52, I got little dizzy. I felt as if I lost my balance. I could not stand still. The worst thing to happen to me and when I almost felt that some hard blow hit my face, that inflicted unbearable pain in my mind,  was when I heard the coordinator reading out the percentages of the class toppers. Among 45 toppers, only one topper from class 9 could manage 82%. Rest of the toppers were in 70s and 60s. That blinded my world; everything in front of me became blur and invisible, so many unwanted thoughts erupted in me, sense of failure engulfed my being and innumerous feelings like how can I possibly make my students successful in life, how will I be able to produce productive citizens and how will I be able to meet my own target of reducing failure rate to 3% by the end of this year when successes like that of the worst foe frowned at me from a distance, confronted me and became apparently unavoidable. I like to remember that day as the day I had my worst nightmare. 

All those provoked me to tell students that 'our results were a disgrace, tragedy and disaster'.  I reminded them about our promises of producing 60% of total students with 60% and above in marks. I reminded that both students and teachers have equal roles to play, and have equal share to bear in attempting to meet our target. I cautioned students that simply teachers' works alone will not be enough to perform  magic in producing good results. I congratulated the position holders, but informed them that their performances were not satisfactory and that they must strive hard, they must continually be diligent and that they will have to lead others towards better academic results.  I may be wrong, but at least for this time, I do not see any option than to blame students for being complacent and indifferent about their results. As per the 'Strategic Plans' prepared by school, I have seen our teachers struggling by engaging students in extra coaches after school hours, giving extra works to poor performers, calling students for extra classes on Sundays and holidays, mentioning in lesson plans and enforcing 21st century teaching-learning skills in classes and checking students' works. I have even seen teachers questioning why and advising some students who are not showing interest in studies to show interest. Despite these facts, the results were just the opposite of what I have expected. It turned out to be quite ironic.

While discussing with some teachers, I came to learn that students usually do not perform well in the beginning and that gradually they show improvement from mid-term examinations. But, this is something hard for me to believe and I guess all non-teachers and parents would feel same like me. If students cannot perform well even when they have so little to study then I doubt that students will perform well when they have heaps of textbooks to read. All in all, I had to persuade a group of teachers to jointly make our students change their outlooks and practices towards studies. As teachers and students of one autonomous school, we must perform differently and show different results irrespective of time. We must,  under the umbrella of 'Autonomous Status', show performances that would earn appreciation  from others.

The results, students' performances and their scores haunted me bitterly, both day and night. Consequently, a thought that some interventions have to be made, in my capacity as principal, before things reaches irredeemable state, was born in my head. So, series of consultative meetings with students and with teachers were held. During one such meeting, a talk about improving students' academic performances cropped up following which the activities to be followed both by teachers and students were drawn:

                1. Subject-wise result analysis to be done to carry out subject improvement exercises with                             immediate effect (teachers).

                2. Call parents of poor performers and provide information and feedback on the   performances of their children (teachers).

                3. Trace out the feeding schools of both good and poor performers so that we can accordingly provide feedback to continue their good works and suggest to adopt new ways in some   subjects. 

                4. Display the photographs of all toppers on the board to encourage and motivate students to perform well (Photographic unit).

                5. Boarder students to rise up as early as 3.30 am (Early Rise Program), provide black tea at 4.00 am, to encourage students to study for better performance next time (suggestion of     students).

                6. Light extension to be granted till 11.00 pm (suggestion of students).

                7. Library and computer rooms to be kept open till 5.30 pm once a week. The number would increase based on the number of enthusiasts (Students' suggestion).

                8. No writing during morning and evening studies. Students will have to engage in reading textbooks. However, they can write during night studies, free hours and while availing extra  time. Students can read library books on Sundays. 

                9. Academic committees among students, with six members each from each class, were formed. Academic committee members to see that students are utilizing their free hours                 productively and that they are utilizing their morning and evening studies in reading texts. 

In addition, all teachers agreed to take care of students in relation to their subjects. They know that they are accountable. The tragic results, if I may repeat, rather than causing damages, brought fresh awakening in our hearts. It implanted, in the truest sense of my word, a strong Ulyssian spirit - 'to seek, to find, to strive, never to yield'. I am optimistic, I will be able to report of wearing a wreath of laurels round our neck because of drastic improvement in our students' results, not long from now.