Encouraged by its successful implementation in Balangir and Rayagada districts, the State Government has decided to extend the Ganita Kalika Andolan (GKA) to all the 30 districts to enhance students’ learning level in mathematics from Class I to V.
Aiming to execute the GKA in all primary schools by 2020, the State Government on Friday signed an agreement with the Akshara Foundation to improve quality of mathematics teaching and enhance students’ learning outcomes by empowering every teacher in Government-run schools.
OPEPA Project Director Bhupendra Singh Poonia and Aksharea Foundation Managing Trustee Ashok Kamath signed the MoU.
The GKA programme would be extended to all Government-run primary schools in a phased manner. In the first phase, 34,642 schools with primary sections and 1.9 million students in Angul, Bargarh, Boudh, Deogarh, Dhenkanal, Gajapati, Ganjam, Jajpur, Kalahandi, Kandhamal, Keonjhar, Koraput, Malkangiri, Mayurbhanj, Nabarangpur, Nayagarh, Nuapada, Sambalpur, Subarnapur and Sundargarh districts will be covered this year. The Mathematics kits would reach all schools very soon, said official sources.
The comprehensive teaching methodology envisaged in the GKA programme is compliant with the guidelines prescribed by the National Curriculum Framework 2005 and supports the textbooks designed by the Teacher Education and State Council of Education Research and Technology (TE and SCERT), Odisha.
The primary objective of the programme is to remove the fear of mathematics from students’ mind and provide tools to the teacher for making mathematics enjoyable.
In 2017, all 4,200 schools with primary sections in Balangir and Rayagada districts were provided with GKA kits. Total 350 Master Resource Persons, trained by the Akshara Foundation, oriented 4,000 teachers in a five-day workshop. The programme reached out to 2.40 lakh students in the two districts.
In 2018, all Cluster Resource Coordinators were trained on GKA in offline and online training mode. Online refresher trainings for teachers would be launched soon, sources added.
