THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The General Education Department has directed the Deputy Director of Education (DDEs) to conduct periodical academic screening in all the government and aided schools in the state, in an effort to improve the academic performance of students.
Earlier, the DDEs were instructed to conduct only administrative screening in relation to the infrastructure development and the overall performance of schools. The Education Department had also directed the schools to prepare an academic master plan before November 30. Department sources said the screening process will begin from this month based on the guidelines included in the master plan.
A five-member administrative committee has also been constituted for overseeing the monitoring programme. The committee comprises a DDE, SSA officer, a teacher of District Institute of Education and Training (DIET), an expert of IT@school, district coordinators of rejuvenation programme. C Ramakrishnan, state coordinator, Public Education Rejuvenation Mission, told Express that a strategic plan will be prepared by November 10 to conduct the screening process.
“The academic screening is aimed to improve the academic performance of students. The screening will be conducted in a decentralised manner as the school administration can only know about the academic performance of each student. Primarily, we need to convert the master plan into an action plan. The priority will be to improve the language proficiency of students. Be it Malayalam, English or Hindi. Hope this will be a game-changer in the field of school education”, he said. The proposed master plan is aimed at developing fully the diverse capabilities of the children. The school history, its present condition, and its short-term academic aims are also included in the master plan. The master plan is being prepared with the help of experts in the field of education, retired teachers, and alumni.
“Proper planning is needed before the periodical monitoring at schools. We can’t compromise on academic excellence. So the DDEs are also responsible for the academic performance of students. They should ensure that every student passes examinations,” a senior officer of the General Education Department said.
As per the master plan, special training for teachers is on the anvil to raise the academic standards of the children. The government has decided to modernise the existing teacher training programmes. As part of this, District Institutes of Education and Training (DIET) will be modernised so as to extend training to all teachers.
The master plan will be submitted for social discussion among all the institutions. It will be presented before Parent Teacher Association, School Development Committee, representatives of Local Self-Government, the alumni association of students and teachers, educational experts of that region, social/cultural activists and the people of the locality.