After below par performance of students, a recent test for principals of government-run primary schools has become an eye-opener on the state of affairs in education in the predominantly tribal district of Chhota Udepur.
For instance, nearly 97 per cent of principals who took the test failed to answer why Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav was being celebrated; only 34 of the 1,011 candidates who took the test could answer it correctly. Only 31 per cent could answer the question on the scholarship amount given to Class 9 and 10 students under the Mukhyamantri Gyan Sadhna merit scholarship. Similar questions related to “current affairs” also recorded a high failure rate among the principals.
The test was part of a workshop for 1,251 government primary school principals conducted earlier this month in the aftermath of a critical report by Commissioner of Geology and Mines Dhaval Patel about the learning shortcomings in five of the six schools he visited in Chhota Udepur in June as part of Shala Praveshotsav, the state government’s annual enrolment drive. The five schools came under the lens after Patel’s report described the state of education as “rotten”.
The workshop was necessitated after it came to light during a video conference of the education department, presided by Education Secretary Vinod Rao, that principals seemed to be ill-informed about government schemes. Following the observations, District Primary Education Officer Imran Soni rolled out various initiatives, including a workshop and tests to improve the awareness level of teachers and learning levels of students.
However, the results of the test with 25 questions were more reveling. About one-third of the principals did not know the duration for group work under Pragna scheme (a Central scheme), while nearly half did not know how much a school inspector would rate a school teacher who has read an average of more than 10 books in a year under the Gujarat School Quality Accreditation Council.
“Two self-assessment tests were conducted at the beginning and end of a day-long workshop for school principals on July 4. In the pre-workshop test, questions were based on Government Resolutions and schemes to assess whether they are aware about these or not. The post-workshop test covered the questions that the school principals were least aware of as we realised during the workshop,” Soni told The Indian Express. Similar assessment tests for teachers will follow in the coming days.
While most of the principals were well-versed in their administrative work with a majority giving correct answers for questions related to admissions, “current affairs” seemed to be difficult.
Sources said that one principal could not name the Union education minister. On the other hand, 98% of them gave correct answers on the section a child, who turns five years old on June 1, would be eligible for admission in the academic session 2023-24. The question was related to the newly implemented decision to admit children in the particular age category to the Balvatikas, according to the National Education Policy where children of six years of age could be admitted in Class 1.
Now, to improve the general knowledge of school staff, the DPEO office has created a bank of 73 current affairs questions. The ‘question bank’ will be circulated among the staff of over 3,500 teachers and 1,250 school principals. “During the workshop, it turned out that the teachers and principals did not know beyond their subject. After a month, these 73 questions will be replaced by another set of questions to help them keep themselves abreast with general knowledge so that they can impart it to the students, too,” Soni added.
Meanwhile, school staff from the district are unhappy about all the focus on Chhota Udepur. “It is only after the letter by the IAS officer that the government primary schools in the district are receiving all this flak. Expecting overnight changes is simply unrealistic,” said one of the school principals who took the test.
