Thiruvananthapuram: The General Education Department in Kerala has announced a new programme to evaluate the academic standards in the state’s public schools and implement corrective measures. The exercise will be carried out by an external committee comprising Education Department officials and experts in the sector, apart from the self-evaluation by each school.
A notification issued by the government on the programme says that based on the findings of the committee and the schools, suitable measures would be carried out to solve the issues identified.
The programme would have the following rounds: a self-evaluation by the teachers at the school level; an evaluation by the School Resource Group (SRG) and a third evaluation by the principals. After these rounds, the SRG will hold a meeting and suggest solutions to the problems found during evaluation.
Subsequently, an external evaluation will take place. However, the official notification does not explain how the external panel would be constituted. It also does not define who the experts would be. “This is apparently a move to provide an opportunity for political interference in the academic matters of schools,” said a teacher.
The programme would be supervised by officials from Deputy Director (DD) to district coordinator for higher secondary at district and educational district level. In sub-district level, the supervision would be carried out by Assistant Education Officer (AEO) and DIET faculty.
“This arrangement is aimed at imposing the directives of officials from the DD-level on schools, bypassing the Regional Deputy Directors (RDD). Supervision of the programme has to be entrusted only with officials who are competent to understand the syllabus and diverse subjects offered in higher secondary classes,” said Anil M George, general secretary of the teachers’ organisation HSSTA.