Rules governing the state board, which made the information available, lay down that if a school or junior college records poor results in board exams for three years on the trot, the state can derecognise it. “Ideally, it is the responsibility of the state government to take efforts to improve academic standards of these institutes. If any school performs poorly at board exams it can get another chance. But if the situation does not change, it is expected that the concerned government authorities take a strict stand against them,” said A L Deshmukh, a national award-winning teacher known for his efforts to improve quality of school education.

“As a first step, the state education director should at least set up enquiry committees to inspect all the 184 schools having zero per cent results in board exams. Through inspection if it is revealed that the same schools are performing poorly consistently, the government can straight away stop the increment of teachers or at least send such institutions showcause notices,” said Deshmukh.

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He added that few years ago, the state government had organised special training workshops for schools with a poor performance record, but the initiative did not last long. Asked what efforts have been taken to improve the pass results, Sarjerao Jadhav, chairperson of the state board, who also holds additional charge as state education director (secondary and higher secondary education), said, “We are planning to conduct a detailed survey to ascertain the causes of poor results at all these 184 schools and junior colleges in the state.

A nodal officer will be appointed at district level to inspect the institutes in his area.” Asked about the action taken until last year, he said, “Ideally, if a school keeps up poor performance for three years consecutively, it can be derecognised. But no such action has been initiated against the schools previously.”

The worst of the lot
For HSC exams across the state, the number of junior colleges where not a single student passed the board examination is 103. Aurangabad division tops the list with 30 such institutes, while Pune division has 10 such colleges. For SSC, a total 81 such schools with 0% pass results have been identified. Konkan division has the most schools in this category at 21, while Pune division has 9 of them. u00a0