Swadhin Kshatriya asks secretaries to monitor, improve school education

Worried about the poor results that students have been getting in mathematics, science and English, chief secretary Swadhin Kshatriya has instructed all 48 secretaries to visit schools and ashram schools in every district to monitor and improve the quality of education.

The secretaries are expected to give feedback to the government to introduce changes into the teaching system and report on lack of facilities being provided to students. The education department has roped in experts from the fields who will first train teachers and will later teach the students to improve their skills in these subjects.

“I have told the secretaries that during their district visits, they should visit schools and ashram schools to monitor its functioning. Their feedback will help us in improving the standard of education. We will emphasise on mathematics, science and English,” Mr Kshatriya said.

Elaborating on the initiatives, the principal secretary of school education Nand Kumar said the officials would be visiting the schools regularly from next month. “These will be planned visits. The education department will be given a few parameters to check if the schools are able to fulfil it,” he added.

Stressing upon the subjects that require special attention, Mr Kumar said, “We are more concerned about mathematics, science and English in which students have been faring poorly and it is worrisome.”

He further added, “We have also started a teachers’ training programme for these subjects so that they can change their teaching methodology. We have also sought help from experts for the subjects.”

Stressing on improving the students’ knowledge in English, Mr Kumar said, “Parents now-a-days prefer sending children to English medium schools so that they can speak the language fluently. We want our students to speak English fluently and hence, will be training the teachers accordingly. For mathematics and science, we have sought help from NGOs and institutes that are already working in the field.”

The education department has also initiated ISO 9000 certificate for the schools. So far, 1,500 schools have received it, said Mr Kumar. The department is expected to include more schools into their innovative initiatives.

Principal secretary of education departmen to teach maths Principal secretary of education department Nand Kumar will conduct workshops for teachers in mathematics. He had it as a subject for his IAS exam and had also done a special course in teaching primary mathematics from IGNOU. “I want the students to enjoy mathematics. I will conduct workshops with teachers to modify their teaching methods so that the students find maths easy and enjoy it,” Mr Kumar said.