NT NETWORK
PANAJI
Responding to the concern expressed by the government as regards drop in the quality of school education vis-à-vis no-detention policy, the department of education has proposed a two-pronged approach to government for improving the school educational scenario including conducting special tests for students from Class I to Class VIII, in the month of September, and replacing assistant district educational inspectors by headmasters/ principals of the government high schools/government higher secondary schools for inspecting all the government as well as grant-in-aid primary schools in the state.
Speaking to ‘The Navhind Times’, director of education G P Bhat said that the Union ministry of human resource development had given a proposal to include Goan schools in the all-India exercise of a test conducted by the National University of Educational Planning and Administration, for Class III and Class VII students.
“We are contemplating making Class III and Class VII students from Goa answer this test in the month of September, while the government is planning to conduct a similar state-level test for students of Classes I, II, IV, V, VI and VIII,” he added, pointing out that the particular exercise would help in the identification of below average, average and above average students, studying in classes from I to VIII.
Observing that after the implementation of the no-detention policy, many teachers have been taking teaching process lightly, the director of education stated that this has severely affected the passing of students at the higher education stage namely at Class IX and SSC. He also informed that even though some of the students manage to clear class IX, their level of education is dismal.
Bhat said the department of education has today forwarded a proposal to the government as regards carrying out inspection of government as well as aided primary schools by appointing headmasters of government high schools and principals of government higher secondary schools, in place of assistant district educational inspectors. “The ADEIs are found to be busy in administrative matters and therefore, proposed to be replaced by headmasters and principals for the particular inspection,” he mentioned.
Furthermore, it was informed that the headmasters and principals would be adequately trained for carrying out the primary school inspection, and a separate format is being drafted to assess the performances of the primary schools, which would be used for preparing the inspection report.
The director of education said the primary school students would be tested for their abilities for reading and writing.
“The headmasters and principals will also inspect existing situation in these schools including the environment, whether the teachers have successfully passed knowledge to the students or not, and if the students have been able to grasp whatever was taught to them in school,” he noted.
“Once we identify the weaker students, it would be the concern of the respective teachers to conduct remedial classes for these students, during the evening session,” Bhat stated, reiterating that the teachers just cannot take the process of teaching lightly.
Maintaining that the inspection of the schools would start somewhere in September-October, three months after the schools reopen, the director of education stated that the weaker students would be brought to the minimum level of grasping the syllabus through remedial teaching.