Jammu, Jan 7: Advisor to Lieutenant Governor, Rajeev RaiBhatnagar Friday asked the officers of the School Education Department to work in the direction of systematically improving the different indices in the teaching-learning process besides effective implementation of National Education Policy-2020 (NEP-2020) across the schools of Jammu and Kashmir.
An official spokesman in a statement issued here said that Advisor Bhatnagar made these remarks while reviewing the performance of the department in a meeting at the civil secretariat here which was attended by the directors of both the provinces, Project Director SamagraShiksha, Chairperson J&K BOSE, and other concerned officials of the department in person and through video conferencing.
Speaking during the meet, Bhatnagaremphasised to the officers that there were set parameters devised by different national and international bodies to assess the teaching-learning outcomes.
“They should not restrict their activities to surveys only but work for improving the overall outcomes using the findings of these surveys,” he said.
Highlighting the need of holding training sessions for teachers, Bhatnagar said that teachers need retraining and upskilling.
He asked the department to hold specific training sessions for each group of teachers as per their ability and requirements.
Bhatnagar advised them to set a target of pushing each of them to a certain standard of quality for better learning outcomes among pupils they teach.
He asked the officers to assess the fruitfulness of training sessions by assessing the capacity building of each trainee.
Bhatnagar asked them to devise an institutional mechanism of assessing the performance and abilities of teachers that is simultaneously reformative in nature.
While asking the department to figure out the infrastructural requirements at the pre-primary level, he directed the officers to factor out the reasons for drop-outs at the upper-primary and the middle levels.
Bhatnagar stressed closing the gender gap in student enrolment.
He said that the department would be held responsible and accountable for learning outcomes and timely creation and maintenance of infrastructure.
Bhatnagar encouraged the officers to include those vocational courses in the curriculum which possess relevancy and recognition outside J&K.
He asked them to provide certification from appropriate agencies to the candidates pursuing these courses so that they are able to secure jobs on these newly learned skills.
Assessing the surveys carried out by the department on learning gaps accrued due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Bhatnagar directed the officers to address all the deficiencies highlighted therein and start remedial classes or teacher training modules as per the suggestions of experts.
During the meeting, he was informed that in the recently-held mega enrolment drives about 1.5 lakh new admissions were done in the schools of J&K.
It was also given out that kindergartens were being started as per NEP-2020 besides dozens of training courses were also being started for upgrading the skills of teachers.
It was revealed in the meeting that the drop-out rate of J&K stands at 3.91 percent for primary, 3.2 percent for upper primary, and 16.7 percent for high school students which was lower than the national average of 4.6 percent, 4.8 percent, and 18.6 percent.
It was informed that the net enrollment ratio for J&K is 81.73, 47.12, 29.32, 29 at primary, upper primary, high, and higher secondary levels.