Over one lakh students failed in Class 9 in Delhi govt schools; reveals RTI reply

NEW DELHI: More than one lakh students studying in ninth class in the academic session 2023-24 in Delhi government schools failed in the annual examination. Similarly, more than 46 thousand children in eighth and 50 thousand students in 11th could not pass the annual examination.

The Delhi Directorate of Education (DDE) provided this information in response to an application filed by a PTI Bhasha correspondent under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

There are 1,050 government schools and 37 Dr BR Ambedkar School of Specialised Excellence schools in Delhi. According to the information received, 1,01,331 children studying in class IX in Delhi government schools failed in the academic session 2023-24, while 88,409 students failed in 2022-23, 28,531 in 2021-22 and 31,540 in 2020-21.

In class XI, 51,914 children failed in the academic session 2023-24, 54,755 in 2022-23, 7,246 in 2021-22 and only 2,169 children failed in 2020-21. According to the DDE, after the cancellation of the 'no-detention policy' under the Right to Education, 46,622 students failed in class VIII in the academic session 2023-24.

New 'Promotion Policy' of Delhi government

An official of the Delhi Education Department told PTI-Bhasha on the condition of anonymity, "Under the new 'Promotion Policy' of the Delhi government, if the students of class V to VIII fail in the annual examination, they will not be promoted to the next class. But they will get another chance to improve their performance within two months through re-examination, he added.

He further said that to pass the re-examination, 25 per cent marks is required in each subject, failing which the student will be put in the 'repeat category' which means that the student will have to remain in the same class till the next session.