Committed to best quality education...
Education is very essential for social development. Especially, the students in the rural area need to get best quality education in their own villages. Since primary education lays the base for academic advancement and achievement for students, special attention should be paid to the quality of teaching at the primary school level. There are 68,833 schools administered by Zilla Parishads in Maharashtra. This reflects the huge scope and reach of primary education. In order to ensure high quality of education imparted through these schools, the Rural Development Department decided to evaluate the performance of Zilla Parishad schools on scale up to 200 marks. This new method of conducting quality evaluation has proved to be instrumental in bringing about a drastic change in quality of primary education imparted through the schools affiliated to the Zilla Parishads in the state.
The objective evaluation programme is aimed at improving the standards of education in rural areas and helping personality development of the children.
The evaluation programme is of 200 marks, out of which, 75 marks are for school management, 12 marks for people's participation, 13 marks for equality in educational opportunities and 100 marks for quality of education.
The school management includes infrastructure facilities, playground, electrification, separate classrooms and computer education, administrative matters.
People's participation sees whether the school has school management committee, parent teachers associations. Educational opportunities include girls’ education and facilities for specially-abled children. Quality of education focuses on personality development of the children.
The shools have been classified based on the marks they get in the quality evaluation programme. Schools getting between 90 to 100 per cent marks is given "A" grade, 80 to 89 per cent (B grade), 60 to 79 per cent (C grade),40 to 59 per cent (D grade) and 0 to 39 per cent (E grade). Every school displays a big-sized board showcasing its grade. This evaluation is done once a year. In the first such evaluation, it was found that just 541 schools got ‘A’ grade, 6,248 schools got ‘B’ and 45,101 schools got ‘C’ while 9,652 schools bagged ‘D’ and 291 schools got ‘E’. This bleak picture of state’s primary education was noticed in time and measures were taken to rectify the flaws immediately. Due to this evaluation method, teachers as well as parents realized their responsibility. This also increased the participation of villagers in the management of schools. Here are two ideal examples of Zilla Parishad schools in Belanki village (Vikasnagar, ta.Miraj) in Sangli district.Manoj Baliram Bankar who joined the school as a ‘Shikshan Sevak’ is the head master today. He is being ably helped by another teacher Shri Rajendra Dilip Shinde. Shri Manoj Bankar who joined as Shikshan Sevak has completely transformed the school. This is a primary school.
Under the new method of evaluation, this school where classes of I to IVth standard are held, has got ‘A’ grade. The students have always excelled in the IVth standard scholarship exam. This school has been getting ‘Best’ remark by school inspectors since last seven years. This school not only got the model school award in 2009-10 but also got the first prize at centre, taluka and district levels and reached divisional level. Taking cognizance of the good work done by Shri Bankar, Rural development department presented him ‘best teacher award’ at taluka level without any proposal. Satara school in Aurangabad district has got the first ISO certification in the country. A visit to this school had inspired Shri Bankar to get this kind of certification for his school too. Inspired with this idea, Shri Bankar started charting out his school’s development in a planned manner. He took into confidence the parents and the villagers of Vikasnagar. With the help of people, he raised a fund of Rs 2.5 to 3 lakh. He used the fund to drill bore well, install drinking water storage tank, whitewashing of school building, painted and decorated school walls with pictures, built a stage, set up a huge net-shed for self-study in the open space opposite the stage, a huge playground of five goonthas and other material facilities were provided. A new trend of school teachers holding extra classes for improving academic quality was started. Focus has been put on improving the handwriting of the students, memory improvement and increasing their general knowledge.
On the pattern of ‘eco village’, the concept of ‘eco school’ was effectively implemented and hence the surroundings of the school became lush with greenery. The school started the implantation of 23 projects based on physical, emotional and intellectual development and it yielded positive results. TUV company of Australia has announced ISO certification for the school. There are 66 students and 16 teachers, piquing curiosity at the ratio of teachers to students. How can there be 16 teachers when the school is mandated to have just two teachers. The tact lies in giving more emphasis on group work. Teachers perform the role of facilitators only. All the students sit in group and act as per the instructions of the group leader for self-study and thus complete the process of self-study on their own. Practical education in the company of nature is one of the characteristics of this school. It is said that the teachers of quality alone can mould a generation of cultured, knowledgeable and students of character. That is why Indian culture has granted an adorable status to teacher. The example of this school underlines how fast a school can develop its academic and physical standard if the villagers and teachers work in perfect tandem. It is expected that this drastic change in state’s primary education will be continued in future too..
