‘Efforts on to restore confidence of students, parents on govt schools’

By Subrat Das

Bhubaneswar: Admitting that the students and parents in the state have lost confidence on the government-run Odia medium schools and instead reposed faith on private schools, newly-appointed school and mass education minister Samir Ranjan Dash said efforts were on to regain the lost confidence.

Speaking to Odisha Sun Times, Dash said the government was taking the problem seriously and had initiated steps to stem the rot. The nodal officers had been asked to interact with the guardians about the difficulties their wards were facing and their requirements so that their lost confidence could be restored.

Students of the Odia-medium government schools are faring badly in English paper and their performance in Spoken English is very very poor. Of the 1.63 lakh unsuccessful matriculation candidates this year, around 60,000 have failed in English paper alone. In this context, the government has decided to introduce Spoken English courses in 100 selected government schools on pilot basis. In the first phase, such course would be available in five schools in each district during the current year, said Dash.

To improve the teaching standards, school teachers have been asked to concentrate fully on academic activities and desist from other non-academic jobs. Departmental officers have also been asked to impart teaching during visit to schools, he said adding that steps are being taken to go for cadre restructuring and filling up vacancies.

The vacancy position at the Plus Two level will be intimated to the Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC) with a request to recruit teachers at the earliest. Very soon 3000 science teachers will be appointed and 132 model schools now functional in the state will be geared up further, said the minister.

The government-run schools have a huge workforce, they constitute around 60 percent of the total strength of the government employees. They can be used productively to activate the government schools, hoped Dash, who took over recently.

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