The Department-related Parliament Standing Committee on Human Resource Development (HRD) has recommended for smart classes in government schools and bring out time-bound programmes to minimise the gap wherever states are standing differently in their educational status.
The committee which held extensive talks with the state governments in its report submitted to the Parliament on December 15 said that discrepancies between the national and the state's systems have to be removed, like the entry norm of 6 years of age is prevalent in some states and 5 years in other states.
This is one of the instances where the state is standing differently.
The committee also expressed concern on a huge number of vacancies of teachers remaining unfilled under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA).
"The committee is of the firm opinion that such a huge existing vacancies of teachers under SSA is bound to affect adversely the implementation of SSA,” the report said.
Giving examples it said that in the state of Jharkhand, against the total sanctioned post of teachers under SSA as on June 8, 2016, is 69,522 by the state and 1,22,678 from the SSA, there are only 34,052 and 78,554 teachers on rolls respectively.
The committee said the government must initiate the pilot project of establishing the smart classes in government schools. This could be done through teaching - learning the process and through computer enabled techniques, like usage of multi-media projectors and smart boards so that more visualisation of lessons for students is employed, the committee report said.
The committee also expressed concern that most of the states did not follow the guidelines of the Centre to deliver food grains at the school point, which resulted in leakage of food grains.
”There have been instances where due to a long supply chain, food grains supplied got adulterated and pilfered. “The Committee recommends that this facet of Mid Day Meal Scheme (MDMS) should be reviewed and points of failure be identified to intensify MDMS in right direction,” he said.
The Committee also noted that while the MDMS seems to have contributed to an increase in the attendance in schools across the country, it does not seem to have any significant impact on fresh enrollments in sample schools.