Moa Jamir
Dimapur | May 29
Analysing three years of the Higher Secondary School Leaving Certificate (HSSLC) Examination results in 2022, The Morung Express observed that government schools in Nagaland are, for the most part, on par with or even outperforming their private counterparts.
When the Nagaland Board of School Education (NBSE) announced the HSSLC 2023 examination results on May 24, one thing became clear: the positive trend sustained, indicating that the Government Higher Secondary Schools (GHSS) in Nagaland maintain a competitive stance alongside private schools in HSSLC.
The results revealed an improvement in the overall pass percentage of GHSS in 2023 for both Arts and Commerce streams, although there was a slight decrease in Science.
Nonetheless, the clearance rate remained high. Specifically, the pass percentage in Arts increased from 81.39% in 2022 to 84.21%, while in Commerce, it rose from 87.50% to 90.98%.
In the Science stream, the pass percentage was 85.77%, reflecting a commendable performance, albeit slightly lower than the 87.64% in 2022.
Performance vis-a-vis private schools
The performance of the GHSS is impressive as when compared to the Class 10 result announced on the same day showing private schools had significantly higher clearance rate (91.15%) compared to government schools (49.13%).
However, in the HSSLC results, the difference between private schools and GHSS was below 6 percentage points (pp) in all streams.
Remarkably, in the Commerce stream, the pass percentage for GHSS stood at 90.98% compared to 91.61% for private schools.
Similarly, in the Arts stream, the difference was just 5.49 percentage points (84.21% for GHSS and 89.70% for private schools). In the Science stream, the difference was a mere 5.59 percentage points.
Notably, three GHSS achieved a 100% pass result, with GHSS Zunheboto accomplishing this feat thrice in a row in Science, while GHSS Naginimora (Arts) and GHSS Jotsoma achieved it twice each.
Two GHSS students, Kilenkala (94.20%) of GHSS Tuli and Kikogwamle (94.20%) of GHSS Jalukie, secured the 9th and 10th positions, respectively, in the Arts stream merit list.
Moreover, out of 44 GHSS with Arts stream, 31 had pass percentage of 80% or above while 18 GHSS had a pass percentage of 90% or above.
All five GHSS offering Commerce stream had 85% and above pass percentage while in Science stream, 7 out of 9 GHSS had 82% and above clearance rate.
Besides, many GHSS outperformed the majority of private schools in all HSSLC streams, with some having even higher student enrollments.
For instance, Rüzhükhrie GHSS achieved an impressive 96% pass rate in Arts with 102 successful candidates, while GHSS Phek secured 92% with 35 students in Science.
Rüzhükhrie GHSS also achieved a 97% pass rate in Commerce with 37 students. Additionally, three GHSS—GHSS Naginimora (Arts), GHSS Jotsoma (Commerce), and GHSS Zunheboto (Science)—achieved a flawless 100% pass rate in 2023 with nine, seven, and one student(s) respectively.
The performance of GHSS holds significance in terms of providing affordable and accessible quality higher education across the state.
For instance, in four out of 16 districts - in Longleng, Noklak, Niuland, and Shamator, GHSS are the only institutions offering Class 11 and 12 level education without requiring students to go outside their districts in the popular Arts stream.
Likewise, only in Kohima, Mokokchung, Tuensang, Dimapur, Peren, and Chümoukedima, there are schools offering the Commerce stream (only 5 GHSS), while the Science stream is missing in six out of 16 districts in Nagaland.
