BENGALURU: The Department of Primary and Secondary Education is planning to revise the morning assembly duration in government schools and reduce the duration, considering the number of teaching hours going towards non-academic activities.The move follows a survey conducted by the Department of Public Instruction which revealed that at least 30 to 40 working hours in a year are being wasted on non-academic activities like morning assembly, distributing milk under Ksheera Bhagya scheme and serving mid-day meals.
Presently, government schools in the state are spending at least 40 minutes for the morning assembly and this is expected to be cut down to 20 minutes. “It is mandated for school students to sing the Naada Geethe and the National Anthem during morning assembly. But most schools have a practice of singing devotional songs too, which takes up more time,” said a senior official of the department.
According to the survey, government schools spend 850-900 hours in teaching, which is lesser than the time devoted to teaching in private schools. “Private schools are spending at least 1,200 hours in teaching. This makes a difference in the quality of education,” explained the official. “Once the assembly duration is finalised, we will issue an official notification asking all government schools to stick to the schedule,” he added.
However, teachers feel these changes won’t help in any way. Basavaraj Gurikar, president of Karnataka State Government Primary School Teachers Association, said, “The department must instead stop deputing teachers for non-academic activities like election duty, survey and census.”
Other activities during assembly
Reading out from newspapers
Making students recite Kannada proverbs
Explaining the importance of that day and date
Making students sing devotional songs or prayers