A year of innovations in school education
Sanjeev Singh Bariana
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, December 30
School education has been among the top performers for Punjab in facing the challenges of the Covid outbreak this year. Catering to more than 60 lakh students in approximately 25,000 schools, the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) faced the never-seen-before challenges of enrolment, teacher training, teaching, teacher-student interaction and complacency.
And, for the first time, everything had to be done online. Besides internet on normal computers, the exercises were designed for smartphones.
The first roadblock was getting the teachers ready for computer education. The department introduced “Ghar Baithe Sikhiya” for digital education through TV/ radio channels and YouTube. Teachers were taught to use the Punjab Educare App and training sessions were organised at the Indian School of Business.
The second obstacle was non-availability of smartphones, particularly with poor students. A small section did not have even one in their family. So far, about 1.3 lakh students studying in Class XII have been provided smartphones in two phases by Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh. A big number of students in the junior classes have been left out.
The department claimed an increase of 2.1 lakh in student enrolments this year. A study ‘Making Quality Education Accessible to All: Policy Perspective on School Education in Punjab’ by Punjab University Rural Centre, Kauni (Muktsar), indicated that closure of schools could lead to “huge dropouts” from schools.
The majority of students who shifted to government schools came from private schools which had closed down.
Looking Ahead
- To improve pre-primary education, 8,393 teachers will be recruited
- Teachers running extra classes for ‘Mission Shat Pratishat’
- Career guidance for jobs after Class X and XII
- Innovations in digital education
- More Smart Schools
A section of teachers said the picture was not as rosy as claimed by the department. The Democratic Teachers Front said that government schools had a shortage of at least 30,000 teachers. It added that going by the ideal teacher-taught ratio of 1:30, Punjab needed at least one lakh more teachers. The department clarified that nearly 35,000 recruitments had been made in the past little over one year and the process was continuing.
TTE teachers, seeking regularisation of services, are staging regular dharnas near the residence of the Chief Minister. A section of teachers is not happy with the department functioning and have alleged favouritism. In one example, a teacher who was awarded a prize by the department for his good work returned it and many others have gone online showing their dissatisfaction.
Secretary (School Education) Krishan Kumar said, “We are doing our best for the students and teachers under the existing circumstances. Besides recruitment on merit, we made teacher transfer online to end all allegations of favouritism.”
“Teaching students to become competent in English is one of our top priorities. It will make them capable to compete with the best anywhere in the world. Equipped with state-of-the-art facilities and teaching aids, nearly 8,000 schools have become ‘smart’ till date and the remaining will be done very soon”. Education Minister Vijay Inder Singla
