Tripura education minister Ratan Lal Nath while interacting with union human resource development minister Ramesh Pokhriyal yesterday asked to release the pending amount of Rs 36 crore for Samagra Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) and expedite the sanction of two more Naboday Vidyalayas for Tripura.
Pokhriyal said, in the current financial year, 5 per cent of the SSA fund would be released on adhoc basis. But Nath urged him to raise it to at least 20-30 per cent. Nath mentioned that the department has already promoted the students from class I-IX and XI to the next class without considering the performance of the students.
He urged the teachers to teach at least five students from each of their locality during lockdown period and afterwards, till the formal study in the schools begin. "We have not yet decided the date for resuming the school or in what procedure will be followed to continue the class in next few months, as experts are anticipating the effect of coronavirus for a longer period.
We may not allow whole batch of students of a particular class at a time and every day. We are trying to develop the best model to teach the students and also reviewing the syllabus. However, we shall protect the students' interest at any cost, and teachers might be taking extra effort to manage it," Nath indicated. He underlined that shortly there will be a meeting with all the private school authorities about their plan of action and share the government decision for the interest of the students.
But in no case health concerns of the children would be allowed to compromise or entertain to loss of the session, the minister asserted. "We had earlier decided that the state would not follow any detention policy at least in the class V and VIII and all other classes the assessment of the students would be made though not affected them promoting to next higher class.
The sudden outbreak of Covid-19 has misplaced all the plans but we shall publish the results of all the classes and teachers would take extra care for the weak students once classes will be resumed," Nath stated. He pointed out that except for a small consignment, books have already reached the department store but could not distribute due to lockdown. While effort has been made to bring the remaining books printed outside the state, the distribution of books among the guardians would begin at the earliest maintaining health guidelines.
Even if lockdown is lifted, the schools would not start classes immediately because there might be a risk of infection among the children, Nath said adding, "The teachers would go to the school and sanitize the classrooms and campus properly with the help of local administration followed by preparing a lesson plan for the students.
Meantime, we have started telecasting pre-recorded lectures of teachers of all the classes on local TV channels and it got a huge appreciation. " The best teachers of the state were chosen subject wise for the virtual classes from primary to secondary level and the classes have been sharing with YouTube channel of education department. A few selected chapters were taught in the virtual classes, which facilitate the students to interact with the teachers once actual classes will be held, Nath attributed.
