In its endeavour to harness the benefits of information technology, ST and SC Development Department has decided to implement a web-based system to monitor performance of students in its schools.
The project encompasses a software solution to monitor learning achievement, academic progress of students studying in ST and SC Development Department managed schools.
The department runs 1,619 schools including the Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRS) having classes from VI to XII for children belonging to ST and SC communities. The total enrolment in department-run schools is around 3,85,610.
At present, there is no monitoring system to keep a tab on academic progress of students in different subjects. As a result, higher authorities are unable to know the educational growth of tribal students.
“Our objective is to effectively monitor the quality of education in the department-run schools over a centralised platform. This would help us plan the future course of action as far as such schools are concerned,” said an official of the department.
The department has decided to rope in a private agency to develop the software which would provide tools for monitoring students’ performance in academic assessments school-wise, class-wise, gender-wise and subject-wise in all schools.
Academic assessments through this software would be made twice in a year. The data will be collected from cluster, block and district levels and uploaded on to the department website.
As a part of the project, 30 District Welfare Officers (DWOs), data entry staff and 10 district-level officials of the department in each district will be trained on maintenance of the software. The agency will maintain the software for one year after which the department officials would take over.
“For Class I to VII, the agency would be asked to collect academic data on Odia, English, Mathematics and Science subjects and from Class VIII to Class X, data on Odia, English, Mathematics, Science and Social Studies will be collected,” the official said.
Similarly, from Class XI to XII, achievement data for Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Biology, IT, Odia and English will be filled up and for Class XI and XII, academic data for all nine subjects would be collected.