Even as the State Government was drawing flak for falling standard of education in Government schools which are being tagged as centre of mediocrity due to poor academic results and virtually non-existent representation in competitive examinations held at national level, bunch of bureaucrats are devoting their time to turn schools into a centre of excellence through a model which they deem worth replicating at district level also.
The programme introduced by Jharkhand Academic Council envisages preparing master trainers in subjects of science to help students of the subject in triumphing engineering and medical entrance examinations to various colleges across India. Bureaucrats now in new role held the view that the model can be introduced at other places also considering the talent pool that is available in the form of well educated officers of Indian Administrative Officers posted in Jharkhand.
“This can be replicated (in districts) also. Talent is there and route to administration goes through academics. Although there is no direct use of this in administration so if these kinds of programmes are introduced then it (talent) can be used. The programme has started; let us see how it goes. And if it goes well it can be considered,” said Secretary to Chief Minister, Sunil Kumar Barnwal.
Barnwal is teaching mathematics to teachers of Government schools. The IAS officer and a BTech from Indian School of Mines expressed that the Government schools craving for image makeover as their private counterpart excel ahead with milestones in terms of students’ success will be benefited from the exercise of skill enhancement of existing human resources serving at aided schools.
“It will improve quality and increase accountability when senior officers will teach. This is successful model and people can relate with people teaching. So there will be impact on schools,” maintained Barnwal. The others ‘star teachers’ included South Chhotanagpur Commissioner K K Khandelwal, JPSC Chairman D K Srivastava, Tapan Chakraborty and Arun Roy from IIT, Mumbai.
Government schools have been struggling to improve results of science in examinations conducted by Jharkhand Academic Council and their efforts brought fruit with slight improvement nonetheless they fell miserably behind compared to private schools in imparting training to prepare their students to compete with students hailing from privileged background studying in smart classes with loads of resources available to provide guidance.
The excitement level among teachers attending the workshop is as high as the bureaucrats who are brushing their concept to enlighten teachers of less resourceful siblings of government schools. Although they consider the whole exercise has been planned in no time yet they are euphoric about their role in shaping the future of their students.
“This will bridge the gap between government and private schools to some extent. It is also good that it will lead to competition among schools to make their students perform. Yet, I believe that this is just the beginning towards bridging the gap between government and private schools and in fact the first step in that direction,” added a teacher of government girls school at Bariatu, Kusum Tiwari.