Ill planning mars implementation of ‘academic planner’ in govt schools
Srinagar: The implementation of the much hyped academic planner rolled out by the Directorate of School Education Kashmir (DSEK) for valley schools has fallen flat due to lack of interest shown by the education department.
The yearly planner was issued with a special focus on improving academic standards and streamlining the exam session in the institutions.
An official said that under the new academic planner issued for the year 2019, the department had decided to categorize the schools into three categories on the basis of the student performances.
“The schools with good learning levels among students were supposed to be categorized as ‘Green’ while as schools with average performance of students as ‘Yellow’ category and government schools with below average learning outcomes were to be categorized as ‘Red’, the official said.
However, the official said that no measures to work out on the scheme were taken by the department for the past eight months of the academic session.
The planner was issued after the national survey presented a dismal picture of J&K’s education department in its latest report, throwing a major challenge for the department to improve the learning levels among students and enrollment in government schools.
The ASER-2018 findings had revealed that only 22.3 percent children of class 3rd can read the text from 2nd primary text books and only 36 percent students are able to do subtraction. Similarly, only 41.9 percent students are able to read the text from 2nd primary text books and only 25 percent can do division.
“Only 32 percent students from class 8th can do division,” the report read.
“The dismal performance of students on learning outcomes was reported despite the tall claims of education department to improve the academic standards of the students,” the official said.
The official said the department had made tall claims of proper implementation of the planner but the claims were deflated due to unknown reasons.
“The schools were asked to prepare an institution plan with timelines covering all the aspects detailed in the academic planner keeping in view the available resources and the social context,” an official said while referring to the order issued by the Director School Education Kashmir (DSEK).
Notably, it was the second yearly planner issued by the department for timely completion of syllabus and improving learning outcomes of students.
“But both the planners were not implemented due to non-seriousness of the higher ups in the department,” the official said.
Director School Education Kashmir, Muhammad Younis Malik was not available for his comments.