A district-level education workshop, organised under the aegis of the Expert Committee on Education appointed by the United Democratic Front (UDF) recently, to discuss the problems faced by the State's school education sector and come up with a policy framework through popular participation will be held at the Indoor Stadium Hall here on Wednesday.
Addressing a press conference here on Monday, UDF district convener M. Veerankuty and member-secretary of the expert committee G.V. Hari, among others, said this was the first of the 14 district-level workshops planned by the committee after the successful conduct of the State-level workshop in Thiruvananthapuram earlier.
They said the workshop would discuss the same 14 topics discussed during the State-level workshop. It includes issues such as practical aspects of implementing the single-window system for higher secondary admissions, issue-based curriculum, role of teachers in enhancing quality of education, the Right to Education Act and so on. The suggestions raised during the district-level workshops will be incorporated in the final recommendations to be prepared by the committee.
The committee will simultaneously conduct a study on the major issues faced by the education sector in the State. It has prepared a questionnaire comprising 30 questions that will be distributed to as many as 100 people in each district during the workshops. The committee will elicit the opinions of as many as 1,400 people from across the State through this survey.
Mr. Hari said the idea was to evolve a curriculum framework through popular participation. Parents, teachers, students and social workers would get an opportunity to present their views during the workshops. “The opinions emerging at the workshops will be codified and taken up for further discussion by the expert committee,” he said.
Different teachers' organisations owing allegiance to the UDF will take care of the conduct of the workshop in each district.
Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president Ramesh Chennithala will inaugurate the programme at 10 a.m. The rough draft of the recommendations prepared by the committee after the State-level programme will be released by UDF convener P.P. Thankachan. E.T. Mohammed Basheer, MP, will preside over the function. The former Education Minister T.M. Jacob will deliver the keynote address.
