Delhi's NIOS Project Records 70% Failure Rate Among 10th Grade Students Over Four Years: A Critical Analysis

New Delhi:

An RTI application filed by PTI has revealed that under the 'NIOS Project,' approximately 70 percent of students taking the 10th grade examination have failed over the past four years, according to data from Delhi's Directorate of Education (DoE).

The Delhi government launched this initiative to address the high failure and dropout rates among 9th and 10th grade students. Through this project, academically struggling students who fail in these grades are enrolled with the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) and provided separate classes.

Statistics from the DoE show that in 2024, only 2,842 students (37 percent) passed the examination out of 7,794 students registered for the 10th grade under the 'NIOS Project'.

Registration figures indicate significant participation across years: 8,563 children 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.

The pass numbers reveal a concerning trend: 3,748 students passed 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 data confirms that only 30 percent of NIOS students successfully passed their exams in the last four years.

School principals are tasked with registering eligible students under this scheme. The financial structure includes an examination fee of Rs 500 per subject, with additional charges of Rs 120 for practical subjects like painting, home science, or computer science.

Furthermore, students must pay a registration fee of Rs 500 for five subjects, with Rs 200 for each additional subject, plus Rs 230 per subject for Transfer of Credit (TOC).

A government school teacher in Delhi, speaking anonymously, identified two key issues behind the high failure rate. The first is poor coordination, where teachers fail to inform parents about their children's attendance. The second issue involves inadequate educational support, as teachers often do not conduct proper classes for academically weaker students.

The teacher also highlighted that principals frequently enroll academically weak students in NIOS to improve their school's overall 10th-grade performance metrics, effectively segregating these students from their peers.

Ashok Agarwal, president of the All India Parents Association and a senior advocate at the Delhi High Court, criticized the program, stating: "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."

Agarwal added that even successful NIOS students are limited to Arts stream options in 11th grade, arguing that the project essentially gambles with children's futures.

Despite repeated attempts, PTI could not reach Hari Ram Sharma, Deputy Director of the NIOS Project at the Delhi Directorate of Education, for comment.