The department of School education is working day in and day out to create level playing field for government schools to be more penetrative and highly effective in delivering quality content to the modern day learner. A number of interventions have already been undertaken and slew of initiatives are in pipeline to render government run institutions relevant in this highly cutting edge competitive environment. To infuse a degree of accountability and punctuality and to streamline the attendance of teachers in public school system, the department of school education came up with game changing intervention of real time and real location enabled smart J & K Attendance app to plug in the mal practices prevalent in the previous method of manual attendance system. This unique intervention of smart attendance application has re-imposed faith of common masses on public education system to a certain degree, though a lot more needs to be done to gain the complete trust of the community. Initially the teachers faced lot of inconvenience to mark their time in and time out on their smart attendance app due to huge flow of traffic on the server, because of simultaneous access by innumerable end users, but the technical team at the back end worked with utmost professional acumen to sort out the technical glitches by adding additional servers and the end users thereafter had a seamless access to the server and that ultimately resulted in hassle free time in and time out on the part of the teachers. Likewise J&K Smart attendance app, to provide instant feedback on the teaching –learning pedagogy and the strategies adapted by the teachers in teaching students of public schools , the Jammu and Kashmir SMAGRA Shiksha Abiyan, the developer and the implementing agency implementing agency of J&K Smart attendance App also developed Smiksha Portal, which is entirely dedicated to students of classes 6th -12th to provide online feedback about their teachers in varied dimensions such as teaching –learning strategy , behavioral attitude of teachers, degree of satisfaction. The feedback provided provide by students related to their teachers will get reflected on the online dashboard of higher functionary of the education department and will surely result in time bound redressal of issues directly concerning students. Because of these technology enabled interventions, the teachers for sure need to imbibe the principle of punctuality and update their teaching skills at periodic intervals to arouse interest and readiness to learn among modern day learners. The Department of Education from couple of years came up with unique idea of organizing mega-enrolment drives at the institutional level, where in top rank officials of the department actively took part to mobilize the community in general and motivate the teaching fraternity in particular.
The teachers need to remain committed and loyal to their profession to transform educational institutions. The best practices of teachers like that of Veena Koul Gunjoo need to be replicated in other institutions and there must be efficient mobilization of human resources so that the best teaching practices percolate to majority of schools.
The ultimate aim of enrolment drive is to connect with masses to mobilize them regarding the facilities offered by government run institutions in providing quality education to the masses. The mega-enrolment drives have been quite successful in getting huge chunk of students from private schools admitted in government schools. As per the statistical figures available on the website of Director School Education Kashmir, during the current academic session, a total of 76492 new students have been admitted across the government schools of Kashmir division. Out of 76492 new admissions, 22320 students were transfer cases, who came from private schools. 51503 were fresh admissions mostly admitted in pre-primary section. This time around a considerable number of 2773 students were admitted as drop outs, who have previously left their studies mid-way due to multitude of reasons. Children with special needs (CWSN) who were hardly seen in the main stream classroom before the enrolment drive previously, too find their way in the normal setting classroom with highest degree of acceptance. In the current session, a total of 875 CWSN were brought into main stream class room exclusively due to extensive out reach of enrolment drive. Worthy Director School Education Kashmir, Tasaduq Hussain has taken a keen interest in the successful execution of enrolment drive and has actively participated in a number of enrolment drives carried out in far-flung areas of Kashmir division to directly interact with the relevant stake holders and get the firsthand account of challenges experienced at the gross root level. Innumerable success stories are pouring in from the government run institutions that have turned challenges into opportunities with their sheer grit and commitment. The transformation of any organization is directly impacted by the leader leading the organization. The revolution of a government school is catalyzed by the head of the institution at the helm of the affairs. One such transformative institution is BMS Krangsoo of Zone Mattan, District Anantnag. The school has set an unprecedented example in enrolling huge number of students from nearby private schools and has infused faith in public as the school is striving towards providing quality education to the 21st century learners. The school is touching new heights under the able leadership of Muneera Akhter. She is leading an excellent pool of resourceful teachers. It is their collective will and determination and working as a well knit team that the school is progressing in leaps and bounds. The successful story of this school lies in the establishment of Smart kindergarten class. Currently the pre-primary section of the school has a staggering enrolment of 81 students. This all has been possible because of the dynamism and learner centered pedagogy adapted by the Kindergarten teacher, Veena Koul Gunjoo who has become the all favorite teacher of the Kindergarten students due to her innovative and stress free activities and the students remain glued to her throughout the out . The teachers need to remain committed and loyal to their profession to transform educational institutions. The best practices of teachers like that of Veena Koul Gunjoo need to be replicated in other institutions and there must be efficient mobilization of human resources so that the best teaching practices percolate to majority of schools.
(The author a resident of Mattan Anantnag is a teacher by profession. The views, opinions, facts, assumptions, presumptions and conclusions expressed in this article are those of the author and aren’t necessarily in accord with the views of “Kashmir Horizon”.)
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