HYDERABAD: In a communique issued on Thursday, the commissioner and director of school education banned providing guides or study material to students in all schools of the state following SSC syllabus, particularly in case of class X students. G Kishan said in the circular that the practice of preparing study material, printing and supplying the same to students by the district Education Officers is “against the spirit of Continued Comprehensive Evaluation methodology.”
The move to ban the use of guides and study material by both students and teachers is being touted as an attempt to improve the quality of education being imparted in schools. Stating that the guides promote rote learning, the circular said, “Readymade answers and memorising them will damage children’s thinking capacity and self-expression. The practice of making them sit in classrooms and asking them to read and prepare for tests will not yields results.” Teachers too agreed that the idea of giving study material to students does not work well in the CCE model, where the focus is conceptual rather than rote learning.
“Before we had adopted CCE pattern three years ago, the practice of giving study material and model test papers was rampant. But now, it serves no purpose because no two questions are similar. No direct questions are asked. Teaching them to comprehend concepts and analyse is the basis of CCE,” said Chava Ravi, a government school teacher.
V Shanthi, principal of St Peter’s Grammar School, said that the circular would make no difference to their students because they were trained to write their own answers from class V. “During exams, all questions are conceptual in nature and open-ended, so giving study material makes no sense,” she said.With class X examination round the corner and extra classes, the district education officers are reportedly preparing the study material and circulating the same among students.
In fact, the Jadcherla district collector had insisted on printing the study material or purchasing the same from a private publisher, an act that did not impress the commissioner. All DEOs and headmasters have been instructed not to use such material and instead focus on chapter-wise discussion during schools hours where students can ask questions, revisions and surprise tests. Self-study can be taken up at home, post-school hours.