Siliguri, May 12: A six-week orientation programme designed to help mothers monitor their children’s progress in school has been introduced by the Sarva Siksha Mission (SSM).

The workshop that started today at Naxalbari aims at educating and training rural women, who are members of Mother-Teacher Associations (MTAs) of primary and upper-primary schools. While Classes I to IV are under the primary section, the upper primary section covers Classes V to VIII.

“The idea behind the exercise is that even illiterate mothers can effectively guide students,” said Samsur Alum, district gender coordinator, SSM, Siliguri. “We have MTAs in all 397 primary and 76 upper-primary schools of the district. While in primary institutions, the MTAs were formed as early as 2004, in upper-primary schools, they were formed last year.”

Besides Naxalbari, the programme will be held in five gram panchayats of the four blocks of Siliguri subdivision over the next few weeks.