Just two months earlier, chief minister of Punjab, Capt. Amrainder Singh expressed his unhappiness over the class 10 result of Punjab in which only 57% percent of the total candidates had managed to pass, now question on the quality of toppers are also being raised; all thanks to the entrance test for the government run meritorious school.
These meritorious schools were started in 2014, on the lines on Bihar Super-30 and aims at nurturing the bright students and to prepare them for the admissions into the professional colleges after class 12. Such students are provided free of cost education by the government.
Government has to bear yearly expense of 40 crore to keep the schools running and they offer only 4100 seats in the schools. This year only 2700 students managed to pass the test.
More than 5000 students took the entrance test and majority of them could not answer simple questions like 'What is the plural of fish', 'Name the biggest planet of the our Universe'. Passing marks in the test were 33 percent and test comprised of 50 marks paper each in English, Math and Science.
Seeing the horrible performance of the students, authorities have decided to re-conduct the exam on August 2 only to accommodate less competent students. The government also, had to re-conduct the exam last year.
Even the qualified students scored less than 70 marks out of 150 in this year's exam.
“The idea was to groom backward and poor, but deserving students and to train them to gain entry to professional courses. However, many undeserving students are getting in, defeating the purpose of setting up of these schools,” said former vice-chancellor of Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU) Prof Ajaib Singh Brar. Brar had suggested the concept to Badal.