GOOD SIGN: Despite lack of facilities, the enrolment in government schools in and around Bangalore has gone up. — Photo: K. Gopinathan

Bangalore: The government schools in the city have recorded tremendous improvement in performance over the past few years. The improvement was basically due to the steps taken by the Department of Public Instruction, including training for in-service teachers, intensive and action-oriented programmes for children.

Director for Primary Education, Department of Public Instruction, Chandrashekhar G., told The Hindu here on Tuesday: "The Karnataka School Assessment results form the basis to assess the performance of government schools. This year, the results have not been announced yet. Thus, not much can be said about the performance of schools." He said that in June, a division-level conference would be held to decide upon how best to improve the quality of education in primary and secondary schools in the State.

He said the conference would be held only after the results of the Karnataka School Quality Education were announced.

Kempaiah, Block Education Officer, Bangalore South, claimed that the government schools had secured almost 100 per cent results this year. "The department introduced several innovative schemes, which had helped improve the performance of children studying in government schools," he said.

Programmes

He said that the learning level of children in government schools had increased after action-oriented programmes were held. The government schoolteachers were trained under the Chaitanya Scheme. Training centres for teachers were set up in all the districts in the State. Workshops were also organised for teachers across the State, he added.

"The Government has set up Block Resource Centres and Cluster Resource Centres for academic guidance. Content enrichment and methodology improvement programmes were also held. All this has helped improve the quality of education in government schools," he said.

Mr. Chandrashekhar said that about 10,000 teachers' posts were vacant in the 51,000 government schools in the State. He said that there were no problems with regard to infrastructure in government schools.

Funds

Mr. Kempaiah said that both the Union and State Governments had granted funds to improve infrastructure in the government schools in the State. "The allegations that the schools do not have proper infrastructure are false and baseless. The facilities provided by the government schools are as good as those provided by private schools," he said.

Mr. Chandrashekhar said that the enrolment in government schools had been steadily increasing year-by-year. "The Government's midday meal scheme is one of the main reasons for the increase in enrolment," he said. The free distribution of textbooks, uniforms had also helped bring back school dropouts, official sources claimed.

Sources said that Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan's Rs. 4.2-crore Metro City project, funded by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, would be implemented from June. It will focus on rehabilitation of out-of-school children by setting up bridge courses and operating distance education programmes and evening schools.

Mr. Chandrashekhar hoped that there would be no shortage of books and uniforms in the coming academic year. He said that a consignment of textbooks and uniforms had been supplied to the government schools in and around the city.

(Concluded)

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