BHUBANESWAR: The School and Mass Education department has decided to increase the duration of classes of three subjects at the high school level with an aim to improve the performance of students.
Informing this, School and Mass Education Minister Samir Ranjan Dash said the duration of a period for English, Mathematics and Science in State-run high schools will be increased from existing 45 minutes to 90 minutes from Class VI to X.
The Minister said the decision was taken after reviewing the performance of students in 2019 annual Class 10 HSC examinations conducted by the Board of Secondary Education (BSE).“The performance of students in English, Mathematics and Science has remained poor in the Board examination compared to other subjects,” Das said. “Increasing the duration of regular classes of these subjects to 1 hour 30 minutes will allow students to get more time to interact with the teachers and clear their doubts, he said and added that schools will be asked to prepare time-table accordingly.
According to sources, around 72 pc students who had failed in the HSC examinations this year had failed in English paper alone. The Minister also stressed on the need to improve standard of English in Odia medium schools in Odisha.
“As a pilot project, one school in each district will be identified as Centre of Excellence where special classes in English subject will be conducted. The project will be extended to other schools at block level if it works well,” Das said.
State-level parent’s organisation Odisha Abhibhabak Mahasangha said instead of 90 minutes the duration of the period should be divided into two sessions of 45 minutes each.