After a fall in State ranking in overall pass percentage in Plus Two examination, Virudhunagar district slipped to sixth position in Class 10 examination too.
Bucking State-wide trend of improvement, the district, which stood third in the State with 98.2% in 2018, recorded 97.92% pass percentage this year. Out of 26,138 students, 25,595 passed out. Out of 347 schools, 198, including 98 government schools, recorded 100% pass.
Chief Educational Officer R. Swaminathan attributed the decline to more number of failures in Mathematics (463) and Tamil (387).
“Teachers felt that the Maths question paper was tough with respect to scoring centum. But we did not expect so many failures,” he said.
All efforts such as special classes and free supply of special learning material were taken to ensure that even slow learners passed. Motivational classes were also conducted, he added.
The number of centum was only 23 in mathematics, with the numbers higher in social science (97) and science (47).
An additional failure of 113 students, when compared to State topper Tiruppur district, resulted in Virudhunagar ending up with sixth rank.
He exuded confidence that the district would regain its lost glory in the next academic year.