PANAJI
Preparing to transition its school education system to conform with the new National Education Policy (NEP), the State government has constituted a 15-member Goa School Education Advisory Council to advise it on all policy matters.
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, who also holds the education portfolio, will head the council which has been constituted by invoking provisions of the Right to Education Act, 2009. It will have a two-year term.
Four members of the council are picked from the scheduled caste, scheduled tribe, other backward classes and minority communities: Vishal Singnapurkar (SC), Dr Shambhu Ghadi (ST), Dr Prakash Paryekar (OBC) and ex-Goa Board chairman J R Rebello (minority).
There are four more members named to the council with expertise in specific areas of education and teaching -- Dr Alan Abreu, who is principal of GVM's BEd College, Dr Gopal Pradhan (faculty SCERT), Roshan R Samant (expertise in pre-primary education) and Dr Guruprasad Kapdi (expertise in the education of children with special needs).
Five more members are ex-officio appointees -- Director of Education, Director of State Council of Education, Research and Training (SCERT), Principal of District Institute of Education and Training (DIET), Deputy Director of Education (Admin) and Project Director of Goa Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan.
One member is to be nominated by the Chairman of the State Child Rights Commission, states the order issued by Director of Education Shailesh Zingde.
The appointment of the advisory council to advise the government on education policy matters gains significance as the State is in the process of adopting the new NEP and could face impediments.
The NEP makes sweeping structural changes in formal elementary education dumping the old 10-plus-two system and adopting a four-stage 5+3+3+4 system.
The four stages the NEP proposes are: 'Foundational' stage which includes three years of pre-school and two years (Grades 1 & 2) of the current primary; 'Preparatory' stage comprising grades 3 to 5 and covering ages 8-11 of the child; 'Middle stage' from grades 6 to 8 and 'Secondary' stage covering grades 9 to 12 in two phases (9 and 10 in the first while 11 and 12 in the second).
The advisory council will now be tasked with charting the way forward on policy matters and providing solutions to existing hurdles including the low enrolment problem in several government schools which recently kicked up a controversy as closure/amalgamation was contemplated.
