KOZHIKODE: Amid allegations that the quality of general education is declining, a high-level meeting of the General Education Department has decided to implement minimum marks scheme from Class V to IX. This was informed by Education Minister V Sivankutty at a press conference in Kozhikode on Saturday.
It was earlier decided that students should obtain at least 30 per cent marks in the year-end exams in Class VIII, subject-wise, and that students who do not achieve this should be promoted to the next class by providing additional study support during the vacation.
This suggestion drew a lot of social attention. Students, teachers and parents realised the importance of the study support. Along with this, we also realised the importance of achieving the learning objectives in each class. This is not an activity that should be done only after the end-of-year examination, the minister said.
In Classes V to IX, 30 per cent marks will be mandatory for written examinations on a subject-wise basis. The minister said that this is not to limit or filter out the excellence of children to 30 per cent, but to raise all children to the desirable level set by the curriculum.
Education department-level monitoring will be strengthened to ensure the implementation of the project. Deputy Directors of Education, DEOs, AEOs, DIET Principals, Vidyakiranam District Coordinators, and Samagra Shiksha Keralam District Project Coordinators will be trained in these matters at the state level. The respective education officers will provide training to the head teachers of schools in their jurisdiction.
The training of head teachers of all public schools in Kerala will be completed by July 15. It has also been decided to conduct cluster training on July 19 with the participation of all teachers in school-level activities of the comprehensive quality education programme, timely detection of the learning status of students, and providing necessary learning support.
Revised textbooks for Special Schools
This year, for the first time in the history of education in the state, it has been decided to prepare and provide special textbooks for the children of special deaf schools. The books have been prepared under the leadership of SCERT considering the special abilities of these children. The release and distribution of these books will be held on June 30 at Government Vocational Higher Secondary School for the Deaf, Jagathy, Thiruvananthapuram.
HEAD TEACHERS SHOULD HANDLE MID-DAY MEAL SCHEME
Meanwhile, the minister reiterated that head teachers should also bear the responsibility of the controversial changed menu of the mid-day meals scheme such as vegetable fried rice, lemon rice and vegetable biryani. “The schools can take financial support from the CSR fund, NGOs and individuals to run the project.
The headmaster has to manage these roles and they’re salaried for this. Buying commodities on credit and paying them later is a usual thing. No head teacher will land in debt for feeding students,” said the minister, in response to head teachers’ complaint regarding lack of enough government financial support to run the midday meals scheme.
PTAs in schools to be strengthened
The government is seriously considering strengthening the Parent Teacher Associations in public schools academically. As part of the curriculum reform, it has been decided to prepare books for parents and provide orientation based on this. The Department of General Education is planning to organise district-level, state-level art and sports competitions for PTAs this year to enable parents to actively participate in school activities. Minister Sivankutty also criticised the Union Government in connection with the fund crisis in Samagra Shiksha Keralam projects.
“If the interventions/activities being carried out by Samagra Shiksha Keralam are not carried out, a situation will arise in which a large number of children from marginalised sections will not be able to enter school. Samagra Shiksha Keralam is implementing a centrally sponsored scheme. Although Kerala is providing funds for this, the Centre has stopped the funding saying that the state has not agreed to the PM SHRI scheme. The students of common people and marginalised groups will be affected by this,” said Sivankutty.