70% Class 10 students failed under Delhi's NIOS Project in past four years: RTI

NEW DELHI: Under the 'NIOS Project,' an average of 70 per cent of students who took the Class 10 exam have failed in the last four years — this was revealed by the Delhi's Directorate of Education (DoE) in response to a Right to Information (RTI) application filed by PTI.

The project was launched by the Delhi government to reduce the rate of students failing in the 9th and 10th grades and the number of students dropping out of school. Under this project, students who fail in the 9th and 10th grades and those who are weak in academics are registered with the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) and separate classes are held for them.

According to information received from the DoE, in 2024, 7,794 students were registered for the 10th grade under the 'NIOS Project', of whom only 37 per cent, i.e., 2,842, passed the examination .

The Directorate informed that 8,563 children were registered in 2017, 18,344 in 2018, 18,624 in 2019, 15,061 in 2020, 11,322 in 2021, 10,598 in 2022 and 29,436 in 2023 under the project.

As per the information received through RTI, only 3,748 students could pass the examination in 2017, 12,096 in 2018, 17,737 in 2019, 14,995 in 2020, 2,760 in 2021, 3,480 in 2022 and 7,658 in 2023.

This shows that in the last four years, only 30% of NIOS students passed the exam.

Also read 14 lakh open schooling students’ pass rates far behind that of regular boards’; NIOS worst, MPSOS, RSOS better

Two main reasons for drop in NIOS pass rate

The principals of the respective schools are responsible for registering students under this scheme. For students registering under the NIOS Project, an examination fee of Rs 500 per subject has been set. If a subject includes practicals, such as painting, home science or computer science, an additional Rs 120 is required for each practical subject.

In addition, the registration fee for five subjects is Rs 500, with an additional Rs 200 per subject, and a separate Rs 230 per subject is charged for Transfer of Credit (TOC). A teacher from a government school in Delhi, speaking on condition of anonymity, said,

"There are two main reasons behind children's failure. The first is no coordination." He explained that teachers associated with the project do not inform the parents of registered children whether their children are attending school or not.

Another reason, he said, is that students involved in the project do not experience the same school environment as other children, as teachers do not hold classes for academically weaker students.

Besides this, a major factor is that the principals, to improve their school's 10th-grade results, enroll students in NIOS who are weak in their studies. This separates these children from other students, the teacher pointed out. Ashok Agarwal, president of the All India Parents Association and a senior advocate at the Delhi High Court, told PTI, "Weak children from poor families come to school for regular education, but to improve their 10th grade results, government schools select these students and send them to NIOS, which offers a very substandard curriculum, unlike the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) curriculum."

Aggarwal said that even if children pass the exam, they will only be admitted to the Arts stream in 11th grade. He said that the NIOS project is a gamble with the future of children. Deputy Director (DDE) of the NIOS Project at the Delhi Directorate of Education, Hari Ram Sharma, could not be contacted despite repeated attempts.