A first: Pre-board exams in Arki school from Feb 5

Bhanu P Lohumi

Tribune News Service

Shimla, January 30

With an aim to improving the quality of education, Government Model Senior Secondary School, Dhundan, in Arki of Solan district, about 45 km from here, will conduct pre-board examinations for Class X and XII this session.

“We have decided to start pre-board exams to help students prepare for board exams and it will improve the results as they get time to revise the syllabus ahead of the board exams,” says Principal Sartaj Singh Rathore, the moving spirit behind the initiative.

The pre-board exams will be held from February 5-10, a month before the board exams. “The people of the area are poor, struggling to earn their livelihood and, therefore, we want the maximum students to clear entrance exams,” said Rathore, a recipient of state and national awards in 2011 and 2013.

The school staff have also decided to give free coaching to students who wish to appear for the NDA, MBBS, IIT and other exams after the board exams are over.

The Himachal Board of School Education does not conduct pre-boards and the Principal has taken this initiative. “We had started one-hour extra class for students free of cost from December 26 and prepared a calendar of activities for improving learning and other co-curricular activities,” Rathore said.

The other initiatives taken by the Principal included mandatory presence of parents in the parent-teachers meet. There was a communication gap between parents and teachers as they never attended meetings and from this session they imposed Rs 100 fine for students whose parents did not turn up for the meeting. This worked and parents of 448 out of 500 students came for the meeting.

Parent-teachers interaction helped to identify the weaknesses and strengths of students. Another thing introduced by the school is the dress code for teachers on Monday and Saturday. These are some steps to bring students of government schools on a par with private schools.

Other steps 

• The school staff have also decided to give free coaching to students who wish to appear for the NDA, MBBS, IIT and other exams 
• It started one-hour extra class free of cost from December 26 and prepared a calendar of activities for improving learning and other co-curricular activities
• The other initiatives by the Principal included mandatory presence of parents in the parent-teachers meeting
• Earlier, the Principal had withdrawn Rs 2 lakh from his GPF and the staff of the school collected Rs 1.43 lakh for providing free blazers to all students to brave the cold.