Empowering students

Bhubaneswar, Aug. 4: In an attempt to revamp the education sector, 314 model schools will be established in the state. This announcement was made by the minister for school and mass education (SME), Pratap Jena, today while taking stock of this year’s disappointing matriculation results, the pass percentage of which dipped by five per cent from last year.

“One school in each of the 314 blocks will be identified as a model school. All facilities in terms of infrastructure, teaching staff and technical support will be provided to them,” said Jena during the review meeting of the SME department.

The minister said that apart from compulsory monthly tests in all government schools to assess the performance of the students, other steps such as remedial classes and extra coaching for academically weaker students would be provided. A question bank, containing probable questions of the previous years’ examinations, will be prepared. On this basis, regular tests would be held to gauge the achievement level of students.

“Monthly assessments will be conducted in all schools for students of classes I to X to familiarise them with the question pattern and do away with exam phobia. Special attention will be given to students who are found to be lagging in a particular subject,” he said, adding that Red Cross activities would also be fortified in schools of every district.

A workshop would be organised by the department in which academicians, teachers and inspectors of schools would be invited to suggest measures to improve the education scenario of the state.

This year, out of 4.76 lakh candidates, around 2.95 lakh passed in regular, ex-regular and correspondence courses. The state recorded a pass percentage of 66.75 per cent. More shocking was the fact that 1.36lakh students failed to clear the examination and 193 schools achieved the dubious distinction of registering nil results. The privately-managed Saraswati Sishu Vidya Mandirs recorded far better results than the government-run schools.

Talking about the ongoing strike by nearly 2,400 teachers and employees of 1,983 block grant high schools, which has affected around three lakh students, Jena said a high power committee presided by the chief secretary, B.K. Patnaik, would examine their demands tomorrow and discuss steps to resolve the crisis. In today’s meeting, there were discussions about scholarship schemes for poor, meritorious students. A total of 5,000 students of Class III will avail monthly scholarships of Rs 50. Earlier, only 3,000 students were getting a meagre scholarship of Rs 20. For Class V students, the scholarship amount has been raised to Rs 100.

The SME had earlier announced the Pathani Samanta Math Talent Scholarship scheme for talented students in rural Oriya medium government schools, both aided and unaided. More than 7,500 students are supposed to be covered under this scheme.