The Hindu : Sweeping reforms in school education on the cards

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 27, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Andhra Pradesh-Hyderabad

Sweeping reforms in school education on the cards

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD Feb. 26. The educational curriculum followed in different schools throughout the State is likely to undergo significant changes from the next academic year with the Government finally deciding to bring in a radical transformation in the teaching and learning processes being followed at present.

Responding to the pleas by the parents, teachers and others concerned, the Government has, at last, initiated steps to bring in reforms in the education system to make it more child-centred, activity-oriented and competency building one.

Towards this end, a series of workshops involving experts in subjects, eminent educationalists and other concerned sections will be conducted in April and May to evolve a strategy to reduce burden on students and enabling the curriculum to be performance-oriented.

The changes in the educational curriculum for schools had been a long pending demand from different organisations connected with students, parents as well as experts in the field of education and the Government has in fact included the issues in the strategy papers released by it from time to time in accordance with the targets set in the Vision 2020 document.

"This has been one major demand from our side for a long time, but there has been no response from the Government despite the fact that the National Policy on Education as well as Prof. Yashpal Committee report on the reforms in educational curriculum have recommended reduction in the burden being imposed on students,'' the State general secretary of the United Teachers' Federation, N. Narayana said.

When contacted for his response on the issue, the principal secretary of the School Education department, I.V. Subba Rao, admitted that the problem of over-burdening the students with heavy syllabus had been questioned by everybody for quite some time now.

In view of this, the Government had contemplated to bring in radical transformation in the curriculum being followed at present to make it more project-based and the performance of students in the projects, both individually and in groups, should be assessed. "This only can ensure competency building among the student community,'' he said.

Speaking to The Hindu, he said that in addition to bringing in changes in the curriculum the Government was also concentrating on evolving an examination progress monitoring mechanism paving way for efforts to improve the performance of students in the subjects they were found weak. In the present system, the teachers were concentrating only on completing the syllabus for the academic year without bothering whether or not the students were learning. "This is resulting in non- comprehension and thereby falling back of certain students who are being condemned for the fault of teachers and the system,'' he said.

On the part of the teachers, Mr. Subba Rao said they should be trained adequately to do things differently instead of emphasising on covering the syllabus irrespective of whether or not the students follow it. "The emphasis should not be on covering the syllabus, but it should be more focussed on how the students learn.

The assessment of students' performance should not be based on the three hour examination, but emphasis should be laid on reducing the pressure on students and enabling them to perform better,'' he said.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Southern States

Stories in this Section

Sweeping reforms in school education on the cards

Lawyers stage protest

Drought Janmabhoomi a gimmick: CPI

Cong. will scrap PPAs if it comes to power: YSR

Fiery debate over an explosive issue

Expert panel inspections from today

Multinutrient shows good results