State secondary schools to rope in mothers to boost kids’ performance

Working on the implementation of this new initiative,which is expected to be rolled out in this current academic session,the department plans to make mothers familiar with the school’s day-to-day functioning. Wherever possible,feedback and even suggestions will be taken from them.

This practice — mostly witnessed in private schools — will involve invitation to all mothers to visit the respective schools at the end of each month,where they will be briefed about the curriculum,events,evaluation of a child’s performance,plans for the month ahead,and if possible,some interactive exercises with them.

The other two areas on which the Department has worked on for the introduction of Gunotsav in government secondary schools are measures on how to improve supervision of teachers and improve teaching quality.

Launched by the state Education Department in 2009 with the aim to address the gaps in government primary schools,to assess teaching-learning process as well as to create an environment of accountability,Gunotsav is conducted in two phases. The first phase starts at the end of first quarter of the academic year,around September; wherein self-evaluation is done in all primary government schools.

This is followed by the second phase,where evaluation is done by more than 3000 senior government officials covering around 9,000 schools,i.e. 25 per cent of the total schools. As part of the exercise,senior IAS,IPS,IFS and other officers besides the state ministers visit different parts of the state to assess and grade them on the status of education.