The General Education Department has come out with a series of changes and modifications under the Samagra Gunameenma Vidhyabhyasa Padhathi (Comprehensive Quality Improvement Education Scheme) that would enhance academic quality and transparency in Kerala's public school education.
In a recent high-level meeting, the department resolved that it would be made compulsory for students from Classes 5 to 9 to achieve a minimum of 30 per cent marks in every subject in written tests for promotion to the next class. This comes after last year when the same benchmark was implemented for Class 8, where students who did not meet the mark were provided with vacation study assistance. The purpose is not to limit student performance, officials explained, but to bring all students to curriculum level proficiency.
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Important decisions
Minimum 30 per cent marks in all subjects (Classes 5–9) to guarantee basic learning outcomes are achieved. Ongoing academic assessment will be closely monitored. Teachers, parents, and students will have to be made aware of performance by way of frequent feedback.
State education officials will go to schools to check how effectively monitoring systems at the district level work. Training of Deputy Directors of Education (DDEs), District Educational Officers (DEOs), Assistant Educational Officers (AEOs), DIET Principals, Vidyakiranam District Coordinators and Samagra Shiksha Kerala District Project Coordinators will be conducted. These officers will in turn train all headmasters of government schools by July 15.
Cluster-level training for the teachers will be conducted on July 19, school-level implementation of the scheme, detection of level of student learning, providing targeted study support.
In a first, special textbooks for deaf students
This year, for the first time in the state, special textbooks have been planned for deaf children attending special schools. These books, designed under SCERT leadership, take into account the special talents of these children. They will be released and distributed on June 30 at the Jagathy School for the Deaf in Thiruvananthapuram. Teacher training according to these new textbooks has already been carried out in 32 special schools.
Higher secondary curriculum to be revised
Curriculum for Plus One and Plus Two will be thoroughly revised this academic year. Existing books, launched in 2015, are felt to be old given the fast-paced evolution of higher and global education. The revision is going to be an extension of textbook revision from class 1 to 10. Classes 11 and 12 will cover topics such as the powers and functions of the Governor. In the first phase, SCERT will revise 80 title textbooks. This work will be completed this academic year, and the new books will reach the students next year.
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