Harried mothers heaved a sigh of relief as their little mischief-mongers were away to school for a major part of the day. Classrooms did not register full attendance with many students staying away from school on the first day. Students entered into their school premises with a bag of mixed emotions.
Some were morose, not comfortable with the idea of falling into the ‘oh!-so-hectic-groove' yet again, while for others, holidays were enticing only for the first few weeks. After that, it was no longer such a novelty to rise late and have little to do.
In government schools, a slew of programmes await students, aimed at enhancing their academic performance.
‘Impact' is a programme designed by the Krishna District Education Officer D. Devanand Reddy, envisaging constitution of a special 10th class batch with the crème of students and imparting subject-wise special coaching to them. “Nearly 650 students wrote the division-wise tests conducted recently. Of them, 100 students were selected (50 from English medium and 50 from Telugu medium). A fortnight-long special camp was organised for this special batch at Machilipatnam, where they were trained by expert teachers and exposed to the best opportunities and facilities. The coaching will continue through the year during holidays and other scheduled slots,” said Mr. Reddy.
To help slow-learners join the mainstream, a new drive SABAS (Special Attention Programme for Below Average Student) has been put in place. A special format of important questions has been prepared to train these students. ‘Alert' is yet another 20-point agenda that prescribes clear-cut roles of a headmaster and teachers.
‘Vijayabheri'
The focus is on effective implementation of annual teaching plan, teaching mode, and effective mechanism to monitor mid-day-meal scheme and over-all performance of the teaching staff.
To instil a sense of self-worth and respect among teachers and high aspirations among students of the State-run institutions, the Education Department conducted ‘Vijayabheri', an extensive campaign across 13 mandals of the district to propagate the many advantages of government schools.
“We went around mandals using a public address system to tell people about the improved scenario in the State-run educational institutions and explained them the reasons why they should be sending their wards to our schools, which are no less than corporate schools,” said Mr. Reddy.
