It is a mandate for the Government to focus on taking initiatives towards improving quality of education. This can be possible only when well-designed learning and teaching standards along with a specific and systematic framework are in place,” said Commissioner-cum-Secretary for School and Mass Education Department Usha Padhee on Monday.
She was speaking at the inaugural session of a three-day ‘National workshop on teaching and learning standards’ organised by the Save the Children here.
State Project Director of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) Krishna Gopal Mohapatra said, “We need to focus on setting quality norms and comprehensive policies with activities listed out. The Government of Odisha has already initiated an umbrella programme, SAHAJ, in 900 schools in the first phase for evaluation of the quality standards in teaching and learning. We are closely working with Save the Children on this to ensure imparting of quality learning.”
In partnership with Save the Children under its project ‘Exchange of International Best Practices leading to Innovation in SSA’ supported by the European Union, the Government of Odisha has identified the area of teaching and learning standards as the area of reform to improve the quality of education for children in Government schools. Resource persons have been trained in the Institute of Education (IOE), london for three weeks, he said
Save the Children Project Director Antony NJ said, “The purpose of the international training was to improve the understanding of the participants on standards and to support the State in developing a State-strategic plan.”
Prof Pranati Panda of the National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA), New Delhi stressed on the quality of key components like pupil-teacher ratio, minimum days of school, minimum hours of instruction and work for teachers, etc., as parts of the standard for effective learning mechanism.
Government officials from SSA and Education Departments of Odisha, Delhi, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat along with officials from the national institutes such as NUEPA and NCERT are participating in the workshop.