Karnataka govt. looks to monitor performance of schools

February 04, 2017 12:10 am | Updated 12:10 am IST - Bidar:

Commissioner of Public Instruction P.C. Jaffer speaking at a workshop on SSLC result improvement, in Bidar on Friday.

Commissioner of Public Instruction P.C. Jaffer speaking at a workshop on SSLC result improvement, in Bidar on Friday.

The State government has begun a system to closely monitor the performance of schools, Commissioner for Public Instruction P.C. Jaffer said on Friday.

“We are putting in place a system of database management that will analyse the performance of each of the 75,000 schools in the State over the years. It will tally the performance of the schools with schools in the surrounding areas in the district and division. It will also study how the school has performed in various subjects in [the] previous examinations. Under the Student Achievement Tracking System, the government will also assess the performance of each student,” he said.

He was speaking at a workshop for headmasters and Education Department officials on how to improve the district’s performance in the SSLC exam. Bidar usually figures among the worst-performing districts, standing 24th last year with a pass percentage of 75.8%.

All the information obtained through such surveys would be available in public domain. It will be up on the department’s website within a year, he said.

Mr. Jaffer said the exercise would help the government categorise the schools into levels A, B, C, D and E, depending on their performance. While the teachers and administrators of the best-performing schools would be rewarded and given incentives, the schools at the lower rung would be supported with additional teachers and teaching material. However, if a school continues to perform badly, those responsible would be reprimanded, Mr. Jaffer said.

He also said the government could withhold the Right to Education incentive if schools fail to send detailed statistics on their performance within the stipulated time.

He expressed concern that several studies conducted by the State government, Centre and NGOs have shown that though the government has succeeded in creating easy access to education, a lot needs to be done to provide quality education. He urged teachers to encourage children to aim for first class, not pass mark.

Eshwar Khandre, Minister in charge of Bidar, asked teachers to teach responsibly, taking a personal interest in the development of each child. R. Selva Mani, the zilla panchayat CEO, and Basavaraj Gunalli, Deputy Director of Public Instruction, were among those present.

Public examinations in March

Public examination will be held for students of classes 4 and 6 in all schools — government, private and aided — in the first and second weeks of March, said Mr. Jaffer.

The aim of these examinations is not to fail the students at the primary level but to identify gaps in learning. “We will help the schools to focus on the subjects in which weak students need extra help. These [exams] will also help remove the fear of public examinations from the student’s mind,” he said. “As of now, there is no proper public examination till class 10. Students are naturally fearful of the one important exam at the end of the year. We want to remove that. We are also encouraging schools to conduct two or three mock tests before the final exam.”

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