Himachal Pradesh
Teacher accountability drive
The Himachal Pradesh state education ministry is set to issue show-cause notices to government schools which clocked poor results in the class XII state board examination.
“The government is likely to instruct the directorate of higher education to issue show-cause notices to these schools, asking them to explain why their teachers should not be transferred. The ministry will also issue notices to schools in which more than half of class XII students failed the exam,” an education ministry spokesperson informed the media in Shimla on May 1.
According to the spokesperson, all students failed to clear the class XII board exam in 20 government schools despite their having full teacher strength. The motive behind issuing show-cause notices is “not to threaten or demean anyone but to fix accountability of teaching staff,” he said.
Himachal Pradesh Board of School Education data shows that of the aggregate 1,717 senior secondary schools in the state, only 225 had 100 percent pass results with 345 recording below 50 percent and 120 below 30 percent. Of the 20 schools in which not a single student passed, seven are in Kangra and five in Shimla districts. “Schools that performed poorly can explain the problems confronting them,” said the official.
Jammu & Kashmir
In-court exam drama
In a rare case, the Jammu and Kashmir high court directed a school teacher to write a brief exam in open court to judge his capability, but the examinee failed to clear the simple exam. This prompted the court to issue a slew of directions to the state government for keeping a check on “tuck shops” in the education sector. The court presided by Justice Muzaffar Hussain Attar was hearing a petition challenging the appointment of Mohammad Imran Khan as Rehbar-e-Taleem (education guide) in a south Kashmir school.
The petitioner had alleged that Khan’s certificates — issued by the Board of Higher Secondary Education, Delhi and Global Open University, Nagaland — were fraudulent. The marks awarded in the certificates purportedly issued to the respondent by the Board of Higher Secondary Education, Delhi indicated 74 percent, 73 percent and 66 percent in Urdu, English and maths respectively.
“In this situation, what would be the fate of the state’s education has to be only visualised. School going children.... would pass out as blockheads,” observed Justice Attar, who issued orders directing the state government to constitute a panel to review degrees issued by unfamiliar study centres.
TELANGANA
CCE master trainers programme
The Telangana government is set to conduct special training workshops for government school teachers on the Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) system introduced last year, deputy chief minister Kadiyam Srihari informed the media in Hyderabad on May 26. This initiative is the government’s response to an 8 percent decline in the success rate of students in the recently completed class X state board examination.
In accordance with a proposal made by the state’s school education department, specially trained subject experts will conduct CCE training sessions for public school teachers to familiarise them with the new system. The school education department has been under fire after a large number of students failed in maths and physics, and was blamed for hastily introducing CCE. Parents who staged a protest asking for grace marks alleged that teachers weren’t adequately trained for the CCE system, leading to poor standards of evaluation.
According to a senior education ministry official, the government intends to train selected teachers as master trainers who will train district school teachers. The government has already invited applications from teachers to sign up as master trainers to be trained by the State Council of Educational Research and Training.
Odisha
TEI faculty shortage alarm
To speedily implement the revised National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) Regulations, 2014 in Odisha, the state government has urged its school and mass education department to urgently fill vacant faculty positions in teacher education institutes (TEIs) statewide, a government spokesperson informed media personnel in Bhubaneswar on May 6.
Currently, more than 15 NCTE-governed TEIs offering B.Ed and M.Ed programmes statewide are confronted with a 50 percent faculty shortage, said the spokesperson. With NCTE core teams scheduled to visit TEIs shortly to inspect the implementation process, delay in filling up faculty positions may put TEIs at risk of losing NCTE recognition, he added.
Under the revised norms, the duration of B.Ed programmes has been increased to two years from one year. For the two-year B.Ed programme, a TEI needs 16 faculty on its muster roll and eight for the one-year programme. According to these norms, the department needs to appoint 240 additional faculty in its 15 teacher training colleges.