Why was the SSC result a big disappointment for students, parents, and administrators in Andhra?

Andhra Pradesh: Is the COVID-19 responsible for students' poor performance in the SSC exam? Is the government responsible for the poor result? Did parents fail to discharge their responsibilities? These are some of the knots people want to untie. The pass percentage was just 64.02% in the SSC exam. Many students failed by a whisker.

SSC pass percentage is the lowest in seven years. In 2016, the pass percentage was 93.26%. Pass percentage was 91.92% in 2017, 94.48% in 2018, and 94.88% in 2019. Andhra Pradesh government gave mass promotion to students in 2020 and 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Later schools started online classes to make up for academic loss.

Govt schools worst performers

Girls outshone boys in the exam. The pass percentage of girls was 6.68% higher than boys. AP residential schools secured the highest pass percentage of 91.10%, while government schools secured the lowest pass percentage of 50.10 %.

Many blame online classes

Ever since the online classes began, many parents started blaming the school authorities and the government. Many students failed to attend online classes because they either did not have a smartphone or internet facility. There were incidents where the parents had to buy smartphones for their kids to attend online classes. "We both are farmers and do not have know smartphones. When teachers asked our children to attend online classes, we had to buy a smartphone from our savings. Though they attended classes, they lacked support to prepare for exams.", said Ravulamma, whose son failed in one of the subjects.

Videos go viral

Poor SSC exam results draw ire from social media users. A video went viral where a parent expressed anger over the government's failure. Students questioned the government for not awarding pass marks. Netizens asked why students were left in the lurch and not given pass marks.

Four students die by suicide

As many as four students have died by suicide in Anantapuram, Visakhapatnam, Chittoor, and Anamayya districts.

A 16-year-old boy from Vepagunta went missing after his parents scolded him for failing in two subjects. While his mobile phone and slippers were found near Meghadrigedda reservoir on Monday, his body was fished out on Tuesday. His father is a carpenter, and his mother is a homemaker.

Two boys ended their lives by jumping before a running train in Satya Sai and Chittoor districts in two other incidents. Ananthapuram district recorded the lowest pass percentage. A girl ended her life after she failed to qualify. Though her parents immediately took her to the hospital, she was declared dead.

Opposition seeks explanation

TDP National President N. Chandrababu Naidu said Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy owed an explanation to the public on the failure of 2 lakh students. He asked CM to explain why there were such poor results despite his much-hyped Nadu-Nedu program in the Government schools. He blamed the government's policies including lack of teacher recruitment for the huge failure rate. "Jagan's Government should take responsibility for all the 2 lakh students who lost one full academic year".