The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) yesterday started training school managements and teachers from across the city--public as well as private schools are part of the programme--to ensure they implement the 'no failing' formula for students
The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) yesterday started training school managements and teachers from across the city--public as well as private schools are part of the programme--to ensure they implement the 'no failing' formula for students.
|
| SCHOOL IS FUN: Teachers will now have to grade students on the basis of aspects like co-curricular activities and overall behaviour |
On August 20, the state government had issued a government resolution (GR) stating that there will be no unit tests in state board schools up to Class VIII. The marking system was also changed, with more emphasis on all-round development of the child and less focus on theory examinations. The idea is to reduce the rate of failure in schools.
But schools were reluctant to implement the GR, citing problems in implementation and lack of knowledge of the new pattern. Faced with this situation, the PMC's education department has started an extensive training programme for all schools within city limits to teach them the new evaluation pattern.
"First, we will start with the administrative wing, followed by teachers. There will be only two semester theory exams. The rest of the evaluation is based on oral examinations, behaviour of students and extra-curricular activities such as PT and craft," said Ramchandra Jadhav, PMC education officer. "We will be teaching the schools how to conduct these tests, intervals at which they should be held, topics covered, among other things."
City schools are enthusiastic about attending the training programme."We will be attending the sessions from today for five days. Children are happy with the new method since there will be no unit tests and progress cards will have grades instead of marks. We had a meeting to discuss how the new technique should be implemented. But still it's too early to say if the new method will be received positively," said Lily Patel, principal, Sardar Dastur School.
Leena Chaudhary, principal, Symbiosis School, "We are excited about the new system as it is more educative and more interesting for the students. It's working on their reading, public speaking, understanding and doing a variety of things. It's also increasing group dynamics. We will definitely attend the programme."
