GUWAHATI: Education department officials are hoping for a better performance from schools after the second round of Gunotsav (Phase-II) which concluded on November 4 in Kamrup (Metro) district.
A total of 635 schools including elementary as well as secondary schools, took part in the evaluation programme. Around 300 external evaluators assessed the performances of government school students over the course of three days.
Gunotsav is an initiative of the state government which aims at improving the overall quality of education in primary schools.
District elementary education officials are hoping that the results will see an improvement this time as compared to the last round.
Under the scheme, external evaluators consisting of the chief minister, other state ministers and officials visited and marked the schools. The overall assessment was based on academic achievements of students and co-curricular activities comprising the morning assembly, formation of student parliaments, use of library books by students, conduct of physical education classes, availability and utilisation of school infrastructure and other facilities, and participation of school management committees in school activities were a few criteria taken into consideration for the evaluation.
In this round, Guwahati MP Bijoya Chakravarty, state education minister Siddhartha Bhattacharya, Dispur MLA Atul Bora, West Guwahati MLA Ramendra Narayan Kalita and Kamrup Metro Deputy Commissioner Virendra Mittal acted as external evaluators at different schools of the district during the programme.
Quality of education in govt schools still a deterrent
At least 72% Guwahatians choose private schools over government schools, revealed a survey conducted by G Plus called ‘Let’s Talk Guwahati’. Around 10,000 people participated in this month-long survey from different localities of the city.
When asked which school they would prefer sending their children to, between government and private schools, a whopping 72% Guwahatians voted against government schools saying they would prefer private school education for their wards.
The quality of education in government-run schools has been a cause of concern for a long time now and proves to be a deterrent for a majority of people when they think of sending their children to government schools. In order to improve the the overall quality of education in primary schools, the state government had undertaken Gunotsav. Students between classes 2 to 8 of all primary schools of the district were assessed under the initiative.
However, around 75 per cent primary schools in the Kamrup (Metro) district scored low grades during the first phase of Gunotsav. According to data provided by the Assam Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan Mission (ASSAM), a total of 708 elementary schools in the district were evaluated under the scheme, out of which 534 schools scored C and D grades.
In Kamrup (Metro), only 18 schools were graded as A+, while 14 scored the A grade and 142 schools were given B grade. As many as 54,837 students were evaluated in the district on their academic as well as extra-curricular performance.
District education officials said that this form of evaluation proved beneficial for them as they were now aware of the shortcomings and are already working towards improving them.
Merger of low enrolment schools
Taking another step to ensure better quality of education, the state education department has merged a total of 20 schools in Kamrup (Metro) district recently since several schools witnessed low enrolment of students during the past year. Apart from low enrolment, there were also many such schools across the state in which not even a single student took admission during the last academic year.
These schools with zero and low enrolment mostly included Assamese and Bengali medium schools in the city as well as the state, informed officials.
Apart from the 20 schools which have already been merged in Kamrup (Metro), education department officials are planning to further merge more schools together. Additionally, there were three schools in the district in which no student took admission in 2017.
“All three of these schools, were Assamese or Bengali medium schools where parents do not want to enrol their children anymore. People are rejecting vernacular medium of study and a majority of parents now want to send their children to English-medium schools,” district elementary education officer Buli Gogoi Bhuyan told G Plus.
She added that the decision to amalgamate schools was taken by the authorities in order to bring schools located nearby, which have zero or low enrolment, under one administrative and academic unit.
Further, no student took admission in 476 government lower primary schools and 95 upper primary schools in the state in 2017. Authorities mentioned that there are close to 48,000 government-run upper and lower primary schools in Assam and around 5,000 private schools.
“There are a number of private schools which have opened up in Guwahati as well as in the state. There has also been a considerable rise in the number of students opting for private schools instead of government schools,” said another official of the state education department.