Government schools to up standards

Parents’ meetings, weekly assessments, project work and on-time completion of the syllabus; all attributes that were hitherto confined to private schools, are finally making their way into government high schools from the ensuing academic year.

With the standards in government high schools hitting rock bottom, thanks to the callousness of the teachers and the officials of the school education department, the government had the novel idea of achieving “academic excellence” in the said schools.

Though doubts are being raised over the implementation of the new scheme as these schools are plagued by various problems, the commissioner and director of school education, Ms Poonam Malakondaiah, is confident that it will be implement in “letter and spirit” from this year.

Ms Malakondaiah, who has been working on drafting the academic calendar for government high schools, is currently in the process of conducting training classes for teachers for the effective execution of the programme.

“Education is basically a tripartite arrangement between students, parents and teachers. But unfortunately, parents are ignored in the government schools for obvious reasons — most parents are from the under-privileged sections of society and are uneducated. It’s a fact that teachers feel it belittling to talk to these parents. We want to remove this stigma,” she said.

Parents of students who perform well in studies and extra-curricular activities will be made to speak in the school assembly to motivate other parents.

The academic planner is being sent to nearly 25,000 high schools and upper primary schools, aimed at improving the overall performance of nearly 42 lakh students enrolled from Class VI to Class X. The planner talks about daily, weekly and monthly schedules apart from a continuos evaluation of students.

“Besides focus on academics, students should participate in extra-curricular activities for overall personality development. Activities on conservation of environment, safe agriculture practices and sports and games will be taken up in an organised manner. This will make them sensitive towards the environment as well,” Ms Malakondaiah said.