On Monday, the Bombay High Court suggested various educational boards to consider making Mathematics an optional subject. This way, the students will be studying what they want to and not a difficult subject simply imposed on them. The court said that this move could be a great help in reducing the dropout rates in Class X.
The move was following the hearing at a division bench of Justice VM Kanade and Justice AK Menon of a petition filed by a psychiatrist Harish Shetty. The petition was on the issue of students coping with learning disabilities in schools and the support and learning aids provided by various educational boards to help such students.
Where universities like Delhi University are making Maths compulsory for even for vocational courses, the pressure on students builds up to a very high end. This leads to many leaving the vest option out or taking up Maths despite not having interest in it and then, face consequences. But, that still counts in higher level education. Facing the similar issues at class X is much worse. It is a given that Class 10 is a crucial class, for some, it is more important than class 12.
“Majority of students drop out after Class 10 as they are unable to clear mathematics and language papers. Till about a few years ago, Sanskrit was an option to mathematics in state board and students were allowed to apply for degree courses even if they had passed other subjects without considering mathematics. We could consider reverting to this system,” said Justice Kanade.
Annual Status of Education Report’s (ASER’s) pushes the point forward. It said that the overall dropout rate in Maharashtra rose to 12.44% in 2015-16 and 11% in the year before. It further gave out facts like in 2016, only 47% children who enrolled in V standard in a government school could do subtraction.
The bench has asked the education boards to take suggestions from experts on this and respond by July 26.