GURGAON: Congress MLA Mamman Khan, who made a surprise visit to a govt school in Nuh’s Bhadas, where he studied until Class 5, found that several students struggled to read simple Hindi and English passages or solve basic arithmetic and called for an inquiry.Khan, who interacted with students from middle and senior classes, said that in Class 8, more than one student could not read from textbooks or do simple addition. In higher classes, the gaps were starker. A Class 12 student was unable to read a single line in English or write a simple leave application, raising questions about how students are advancing to board classes without foundational skills. The school falls under Khan’s Ferozepur Jhirka constituency.
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Khan said he examined notebooks and found that most were either blank or had only a few lines written. Fewer still had teacher signatures or corrections, Khan said, claiming that it pointed to gaps in both classroom teaching and monitoring.Teachers present at the school, the MLA said, were unable to explain how such gaps had gone unaddressed. Some cited regional and language challenges particular to Mewat, saying improvement would take time.“After spending so many years in school, this level of learning is unacceptable. This shows a complete breakdown of teaching and monitoring. If we do not act now, we are risking the future of an entire generation,” Khan said.Under the Right to Education Act, automatic promotion without detention was mandated until Class 8. Following recent amendments, schools may now detain students in Classes 5 and 8 if they fail year-end examinations after a re-test, but students in Classes 1 to 4 cannot be held back. Educationists have argued that the original no-detention policy contributed to the accumulation of unaddressed learning deficits across grade levels.Khan also claimed there were discrepancies in attendance and called for verification of records after noting that in one classroom, the register showed more than 70 students enrolled, but only 30 were present. The inspection also flagged discrepancies between physical attendance registers and online records of teachers.Khan urged the education department to conduct more surprise inspections, strengthen monitoring systems and focus on learning outcomes rather than enrolment figures. Nuh deputy commissioner Akhil Pilani said of the 689 students enrolled in the school, 355 were present on the day of inspection. “Directions have been issued to the school and the education department to improve attendance through active involvement of the school management committee, parents and the local community,” Pilani said.
