BENGALURU: The primary and secondary education department which is set to introduce National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 in schools from the coming academic year 2022-23, has already set a task force towards recreating Special Education Zones (SEZ's) to bring about an educational-equity in the state.
The committee comprises educational experts and is set the task of defining the parameters for selecting a special education zone (block-level). Three rounds of deliberations have taken place thus far and data is being collected from census, departmental reports, interdepartmental collaborations, to know blocks lagging behind be it in terms of nutrition, education, health, literacy, socio-economic factors, among others. Once the formula for deciding upon a SEZ is arrived at, blocks will be identified for specific interventions and the government would allocate resources which is said to extend to three or more years.
The five member committee has at its helm Nalin Atul, Additional Commissioner of Public Instruction, Kalaburagi Division, who is known to have played a vital role in improving the education quality of government institutions in Kalyana Karnataka region through adequate fund allocation.
Atul told The New Indian Express that the idea is to improve the overall educational attainment (in the state), and the SEZ will fast-tack these areas (blocks) to attain the overall educational outcomes. This means providing not just infrastructure but also additional teachers, providing quality education, to get these areas on par with others in terms of educational attainments.
As per educationist Prof Rishikesh B.S., from Azim Premji University, SEZ will enable schools from a certain block to be put on a fast-track mode for development. Block level officials will have a stronger role to play, and advocate strongly which schools require development, with this SEZ tag.
It fortifies the bottom up approach to development, which is seen at present with heads of schools providing statistics to the department which makes policy decisions based on the data. Such a locally-focussed approach to development existed with the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan but since the funds allocated for SSA were reduced, this programme too was shadowed, said officials from the education department.
The government has already formed committees to draw out position papers of the real curriculum in the state and find the gap between it and the normative one frameworked by the NEP.
Second PUC exams from Nov 29
The Department of Pre University Education on Friday announced that the II PUC mid-term examinations will be held from November 29 to December 10. The examinations will be held in two sessions -- 9 am to 12.15 pm and 2 pm to 5.15 pm. There will be just a two-day break -- Saturday and Sunday.
TIME-TABLE
Nov 29: Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Marathi, Arabic and French
Nov 30: English
Dec 1: History and Physics
Dec 2: Economics and Chemistry
Dec 3: Political Science, Biology, Electronics, Computer Science, Geology, Carnatic Music, Hindustani Music & Statistics
Dec 6: Sociology, Mathematics and Basic Math
Dec 7: Accountancy, Education and Home Sciences
Dec 8: Business Studies, Logic and Optional Kannada
Dec 9: Geography, Psychology, Information Technology, Retail, Automobile, Healthcare, Beauty and Wellness
Dec 10: Hindi, Urdu and Sanskrit
BMTC student passes
The Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) will start issuing smart card-based student passes at 95 BangaloreOne kiosks in the city from Sunday. Passes will be issued from 8 am to 6.30 pm on all days.