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| Education boost |
Patna, July 4: The state human resource development (HRD) department would introduce learning enhancement programme (LEP) in the entire state in phases after success of its pilot project in five districts. The aim behind the scheme is to keep a tab on dropout rates in the government schools.
Under the pilot project, the state government has tied up with United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (Unicef). A subject-wise growth profile of each student was assessed with parents being informed at regular intervals about the progress or lack of improvement of their wards.
The project has been devised by Unicef and is jointly funded by the state and central governments. At present, the scheme is functioning in 135 schools in five districts, including Gaya, Purnea, Banka, Vaishali, and Samastipur, since November 2010.
HRD principal secretary Anjani Kumar Singh said: “With the success of the pilot project in these five districts, the state HRD is planning to introduce the project in other districts and it would be inaugurated on August 15.”
Singh added: “There was a good response from teachers, students and parents to the pilot project and so we thought of implementing it in other districts. Under the project, teachers’ work would also be assessed. Moreover, efforts would be made for improving the teaching abilities of the instructors.”
According to the scheme, if parents feel their ward’s performance is not up to their expectations, they can register a complaint with the block education officers and district superintendents of education.
The idea behind the scheme is to improve the quality of education in the government schools as more than 15,000 primary school teachers had failed to clear the teachers’ eligibility tests, the last of which was held in 2010.
The state government would make sure all students from class I to IV are covered under the programme. Moreover, according to the LEP, subjects like English, Hindi, mathematics and science would be simplified and teachers would have a booklet on each chapter.
