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LUCKNOW: In Hindi heartland Uttar Pradesh , 5.23 lakh students who appeared for their class X UP Board exam in 2017 failed their Hindi language paper.

Figures released by the Uttar Pradesh Secondary Education Board, which conducts the state board exam, show that out of 29 lakh students who wrote the Hindi exam, 23.5 lakh were declared successful, while 20% failed. While the pass percentage in Hindi for class X is at 81.28%, the same for English is 81.46%.

"5.23 lakh failures this year is a disturbing figure,'' said R P Mishra , state secretary, UP Secondary Education Teachers' Association. In UP Board, any student who fails in Hindi is detained.

In 2012, 35 lakh children appeared for the Hindi exam and 3 lakh didn't pass, while only 40% students secured above 50% marks. In 2011, 33 lakh students appeared for Hindi paper and close to 4.5 lakh were declared unsuccessful.

A section of secondary education teachers said students do not pay attention to the subject as it is their mother tongue. Some also attributed the decline in pass per cent to the introduction of Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) in class X UP board in 2011.

In almost all other languages, pass percentage is higher than Hindi. 87.78% students passed in Urdu language while pass percentages in Punjabi is 85.71. Bengali recorded 100% results. In other compulsory subjects in class X, including mathematics, social sciences and sciences, the pass percentages were 72.54%, 82.78% and 78.33%, respectively.

"Remedial classes should be conducted for Hindi in schools and while the government's decision to make English compulsory from class I is a good move, they must initiate steps to ensure children learn proper Hindi too,'' said an official.

