The first round of government schools gradation programme initiated with the purpose to rank all the government schools across Jharkhand on set parameters to ensure quality education at par with private educational institutes has been completed.
Notably, out of total 2440 government schools included in survey in Ranchi district only 126 schools have managed to grab Grade A position as per the records of the first phase of school gradation programme. According to the survey Rahe block, Sonahatu block including lapung block are the worst performers in terms of availability of basic amenities at educational cradles for students in these respective blocks for ensuring state of art education services for overall development.
On the other hand, performing high on all the set parameters, Angara block tops the list in district with no schools in the block falling in-group D category followed by Tamar and Namkum block respectively. The survey divided into four gradation A,B,C, D category depicts the performance of each school indicating the best and the worst performers in chart. All the government schools have been marked out of 100 marks.
With the aim to set a benchmark for all the schools in terms of providing quality education, the department of School Education and literacy has launched the school gradation initiative programme few months back. Denoting the four different colours according to the performance, green (Grade A), yellow (Grade B), blue (Grade C) and Red (Grade D), the government schools have been ranked accordingly by the members of ‘Parivartan’ team in the first phase. The second and final round of the programme is likely to be initiated soon by the department personnel. The final report will be tabled in the first week of January 2017 compiling all the details from across the 24 districts.
The gradation programme based on 61 parameters includes student classroom ratio (minimum 30-50 students must be present in one classroom at a time), arrangement of toilets on school premises (with running water facilities and separate restrooms for both boys and girls), availability of drinking water, basic infrastructure, community participation, vibrancy of schools and quality education being imparted to kids.
“The set parameters are same for both elementary and secondary schools for conducting the survey. Maximum 50 points has been given for delivering quality education in schools, rest 50 points has been divided accordingly giving importance to each section to rank the schools. Maximum D grade schools have been demarcated at lapung block with total 84 sub- standard schools delivering below standard academics services and with poor facilities,” said Ranchi DSE, Shivendra Kumar.
“Around 34 D-grade schools with below standard performance were found in Tamar block including 15 schools at Namkum delivering sub standard education. The survey has been conducted seeking Karnataka school education model, however the concept varies in terms of grading format,” added Kumar.