Bijapur, the Chhattisgarh district that was the worst-affected by Maoism, has jumped to first place among the state’s 33 districts for pass percentage in class 10 board exams and second place in class 12 exams.
Last year, the district stood ninth in class 10 pass percentage and 23rd in class 12 pass percentage. The pass percentage for class 10 boards has increased from 85.40% last year to 96.06% this year, and for class 12 boards, it increased from 80.35% to 95.63%.
The district was once infamous for school students dropping out and allegedly joining Maoist ranks, officials said.
In the last two years, security forces stepped up operations against Maoists in the Bastar region, which includes Bijapur. Since 2024, as many as 234 Maoists have been killed in encounters, while 1,191 have been arrested and another 1,003 have surrendered, severely weakening the rebel movement.
How Bijapur Moved from Maoist Violence to Top Class 10 Results
Starting from a survey
Last year, District Collector Sambit Mishra conducted a survey to find out how many school children were dropping out and why. The survey revealed that nearly 10,000 children had dropped out of school.
Mishra then set out to ensure that of those that remain, the maximum number of students clear the 10th and 12th board exams. “Soon after the results last year (in May), we took a meeting with all school teachers and principals, where we found out the issues. We learnt that faculty members were not present in many instances. We also took a basic test of all children and identified those who were weak in their studies. We learnt that there were learning gaps, due to which personal attention was needed for students. We then took four major steps,” he said.
First was finding out which subjects needed more teachers, and we recruited 68 new teachers, called “Shiksha Mitans”, using District Monetary Foundation (DMF) funds.
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The other three steps taken were conducting pre-board exams every two months with regular performance reviews. The teachers were asked to identify weaker students and take remedial classes and extra teaching sessions. A district-level exam cell prepared blueprint-based question papers for students so they are well-prepared. Another initiative was teaching students Artificial Intelligence prompts, which helped some of them clear their doubts, though several others could not use it due to a lack of mobile network.
How Bijapur Moved from Maoist Violence to Top Class 10 Results
The authorities also worked on ensuring that attendance at schools was over 90%.
District Zilla Panchayat CEO Namrata Choubey’s active involvement in monitoring was critical. She used to hold monthly meetings with all subject teachers where students were performing poorly in pre-boards and our centralised test. This helped us address the gaps and ensure better results,” said Mishra.
The education department’s assistant programme coordinator, Zakir Khan, said, “We had eight months to prepare students for the exams, and the results were very pleasing. Last year, 3,940 students appeared for SSC (10th) and HSC (12th), of which 3,279 passed. This year, 4,111 students appeared for SSC and HSC, of which 3,942 passed.”
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It was not only pass percentage, but the number of students securing first-class marks also doubled this year. “This year, 2,805 students got first-class in SSC and HSC, while last year the number was 1,441. Girls were ahead of boys in both exams,” said District Education Officer Lakhanlal Dhanelia.
The results also brought a cheer to the face of Satyanarayan Tokal, 57, who has been teaching in a government school in Pamed, once a Naxal stronghold over 100 km away from Bijapur district headquarters.
“Till last year, there was no proper road to our school, and to go to Bijapur town, we used to travel via Telangana. Until 2008, it was a middle school and then it became a high school. The initiative has made a big impact. In 2012, it became a higher secondary school, and since then, it is the first time that two girls have scored above 80% marks. Archana Gundi scored 82% in HSC science and Sandhya Sabka scored 80% in SSC,” said Tokal proudly.
Khan said, “In Tarlaguda porta cabin school near the Telangana border, all 28 children passed. One of them, Divya Micha, got 87.84%. She is from a remote village named Metlacheru, about 16 km from Bhopalpatnam, where there is no electricity or network.”
