the goan I network
PANAJI
On the eve of back-to-school-day in the state, three heads of institutions together urged the Education Minister Pramod Sawant to set up a think-tank to guide the government on educational policies in the state, and raise the bar for the quality of education offered by the state.
Speaking at a round table conference organised by Fomento Media on Wednesday, Aparna Chari, head of Mustifund High School, M Deshpande, head of Vidya Prabhodini High School, and Vilas Satarkar, head of Dr KB Hedgewar High School were speaking of the challenges faced by teachers, and schools, and the remedies that could be put in place to facilitate the education process.
“With the number of doctorates in the state, there is the capacity in Goa for a five-six member think-tank which the Education Minister could set up,” said Deshpande, adding that officials in the field of education like the Director of Education, and the State Council for Educational Research and Training (SCERT) were occupied with important administrative matters and could not dedicate all their time to only thinking of way to improve education.
“There needs to be a team looking only into the problems of education in the state, and the way forward. This team would need to look at both the short term and long term goals of education in the state, and the long term effect of education policies,” he said.
Further, the heads of institutions urged Sawant to oversee that academic inspections were carried out in a timely manner in the upcoming academic year. “We urge the Education Minister to ensure that these inspections are carried out on time. If they don’t happen regularly, the school administration takes their own time to settle administrative affairs,” said Deshpande.
Meanwhile, Satarkar stressed the need for more local content in primary school syllabi. “There is not enough local content in the primary syllabus, and the focus should definitely be more on Goa’s history and the state itself, otherwise primary school students are left without much knowledge about Goa,” he said.
Speaking more on the existing syllabus for schools, Chari voiced out that the Maths that the students were learning was too mechanical and needed to be practical-oriented, especially at the primary level.
The heads also urged parents to encourage their children to attend remedial classes if the students could not cope in certain subjects. They lamented that even if the school organised such classes, there were no takers.
All three heads on the other hand praised the teaching fraternity saying that of late, teachers had started taking more interest in their work and that this impact had been very high.
