More than 11,000 students of Government schools appeared in the screening test for admission in class IX on Tuesday after undergoing a specially designed Bridge Course from June 20 to July 8.
The results of the test will be announced on Wednesday. The students who will get grades D and E will undergo the Bridge Course again and another test will be held for such students on July 25.
School Education Department informed that the students who perform badly in the test on July 25 will be put in remedial classes. However, they would not be detained as per the provisions of the Right to Education Act. The Bridge Courses were conducted at all the Government secondary and senior secondary schools in the district.
The students appearing for the tests on Tuesday are those who had received abysmally low D and E grades in the screening tests conducted in June. Notably, nearly 14, 000 students had appeared for the screening test conducted in June.
School Education Department’s Divisional Joint-Commissioner PR Tiwari informed that the practice of screening tests has been introduce to put a check on low-results in the Board examinations. He told that the low performing students will be given special attention and accountability of the teachers would also be enforced so that they teach properly.
He also informed that the department has planned to introduce monthly tests for class V, VIII, and IX onwards to keep tab on learning levels of students. “The performance of the students will be assessed regularly. The teachers would be held responsible to ensure that the students who are performing badly are given special attention. In case they fail to do so penalty will be imposed,” he told, adding the Bhopal is the first district to initiate this practice.
Meanwhile, the recent measures by the school education department have not gone well with the teaching fraternity in the district. A member of the Adhyapak Coordination Committee (a group of Government school teachers) said on condition of anonymity, “The official orders for these initiatives have not yet been released. The department is imitating the private schools by imposing performance norms on the teachers. Besides, it also appears that the government is trying to cow down the teachers to defer the demands of pay hikes for which long agitations were earlier held.”