Education

AMC to evaluate performances of standard V and VII students

Wednesday, 27 November 2013 11:39 administrator

The Times of India 27.11.2013

AMC to evaluate performances of standard V and VII students

AURANGABAD: To improve the educational standard in its schools, the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) will now evaluate the performance of students in classes V and VII, starting next month.

On Tuesday, A M Shaikh, education officer in the AMC said that writing, reading and mathematical problem-solving abilities of the students will be judged through a questionnaire.

"We have undertaken a slew of measures to bring in a change in teaching patterns in civic schools. Teachers have been asked to follow a specific time-table from the new academic session. Students have been provided with books and other material. In addition to this, municipal commissioner Harshdeep Kamble has also visited some of the AMC-run schools and reviewed the teaching methodology," Shaikh said.

About 19,000 students are currently enrolled in 78 schools run by the civic body. Of these, 52 schools offer education up to the primary level (from Class I to Class VII), while there are only 23 higher primary level (Class VI to Class VIII) schools.

So, while Class V and Class VIII students should have been ideally evaluated, to get the highest representative sample for both categories, Class VII has been chosen instead.

"From the primary school category (classes I to VII), we have planned to involve students of Class V, while from the higher primary (classes VI to VIII) we will be conducting the test for Class VII students," Shaikh said.

Shaikh said the civic body was looking forward to analyzing the impact of its initiatives through the evaluation. "A special team of teachers and head-masters have been set up for the purpose. The team will visit all AMC schools and randomly select students in Standard V and VII for the evaluation," he said.

"The AMC may replicate the process for students in other classes, if required," Shaikh said.

PMC school board seeks corporate help

Tuesday, 26 November 2013 11:08 administrator

The Times of India 26.11.2013

PMC school board seeks corporate help

PUNE: With the shadow of a financial crisis looming large over the civic budget for the next fiscal, the Pune Municipal Corporation's (PMC) school board has decided to seek corporate help for the smooth functioning of its schools.

Ravindra Chaudhari, newly-elected chairman of the school board, on Monday said: "There are signs that the annual civic budget is going to face a crunch. In this situation, we are not sure how much funds will be allocated to the school board. Therefore, we have decided to seek help of corporate houses to cater to the needs of civic schools."

The board has already approached some companies, who Chaudhari said have expressed their willingness to help. "We will ask them to shoulder some responsibilities such as beautification of the school premises and providing educational material. We want to ensure that students don't suffer due to budget constrains."

The PMC runs as many as 320 schools in the city, including Marathi, English and Urdu medium. More than 1 lakh students study in these schools. "I am going to take up the issue with the Mahratta Chamber of Commerce Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA) officials. I hope MCCIA to help the school board. Corporate help will enable us to bring these schools on par with private ones," said Chaudhari.

Chaudhari admitted that students passing out of PMC-run primary schools find it difficult to get admissions in private secondary schools. "We are planning to start more secondary schools because private educational institutes are denying admission to PMC school students. We are also going to talk with private school administrations in this regard," he said.

GVMC enrolls destitute children into schools

Tuesday, 26 November 2013 11:02 administrator

The Times of India 26.11.2013

GVMC enrolls destitute children into schools

VISAKHAPATNAM: The Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) has initiated efforts to educate children of destitute people who stay in its night shelters in the city. To begin with, six of them have already been enrolled in a municipal school at Dwarakanagar over the last two days.

The six students, including two girls, are children of destitutes that take shelter at the TSR Complex in the city. While two students each have been enrolled in class III and IV, one each have been enrolled in Class V and VI.

GVMC deputy educational officer Lakshmi Narasa claimed the initiative is a novel concept adopted by the civic body under the Right to Education Act that mandates compulsory education for children below 14 years.

"We have just started work on the concept. We will soon identify children in night shelters with the help of an NGO and try to enroll them in GVMC schools. However, GVMC can provide only education to the children and not hostel facility as it doesn't have any residential schools or hostels," Lakshmi told TOI.

At present, 143 destitute people who migrated from various parts of the state as well as neighbouring states such as Odisha stay in the two night shelters in the city at Bheemnagar, which accommodates 65 people, and TSR Complex, which provides shelter to 78 people, said Association for Regional Tribal Development (ARTD) urban wing secretary Pragada Srinivasu.

"Many people migrated to the city because of family disputes and other reasons. ARTD, in association with GVMC, put all these wandering destitutes in the two night shelters and ensured daily wage employment. However, to prevent their children from taking up labour work or becoming beggars, we have identified six children so far and enrolled them in a GVMC school. Four other children are yet to join school," Srinivasu told TOI.

He also appealed to the GVMC to provide those taking shelter at their night shelters basic amenities such as blankets, buckets and recreation facilities according to Supreme Court guidelines. The association has also appealed to the corporation to sanction voter identity cards and ration cards to such people.

GVMC commissioner MV Satyanarayana held a meeting to review the running of the night shelters and gave an assurance that the civic body would soon set up three more night shelters in different parts of the city such as Collectorate Area, Dandubazaar and Dabagardens at a cost of Rs 80 lakh.

Civic school students back in classroom after 40 days

Friday, 22 November 2013 10:26 administrator

The Times of India 22.11.2013

Civic school students back in classroom after 40 days

KAUSA: Over 6,200 Thane Municipal Corporation-run (TMC) students are a happy lot as they will get their classrooms back after a span of 40 days. These students were forced to stay home much prior to Diwali vacation, as their school building in Kausa, housing nine schools, was declared dangerous. All these students had to skip their half yearly exams.

All these students will attend regular classes at a new location from Thursday onwards. Students were relieved with this news, but were tensed about their exams as well. Finally, after 40 days, the TMC's education department has arranged for an alternative place, which is an under-construction civic school and stadium at Shimla Park, Kausa.

The new building is designed to accommodate all nine schools, as a replacement of the old and dilapidated ones which was shut on October 12. The half-yearly exam, which was called off, will be now held from November 25. "We are not well-versed with the chapters that were to be covered during the lapse period. Now, exams are on our head and I am scared how to write the papers," said Anish Shaik, a student.

"In the meantime, we were in quest of finding suitable places to shift the students and have finally zeroed in on our new school compound and nearby stadium. As many as 20 class rooms have been spruced up at both places to run two batches. The new question papers are set to conduct the exams from Monday," said Dr Ganpat More, TMC education officer. As many as 12 classrooms have been created at the under-construction school and eight more at the stadium premises.

"We will continue the classes at these two places till the end of this academic year, by that time our new building should be ready. With the reopening to schools after summer vacation we will shift the students to our full-fledged set up," said More, adding that extra coaching has been arranged for students from Thursday to Sunday to complete the remaining portions in a run up to the exams.

AMC set to open five new English-medium schools

Tuesday, 19 November 2013 09:30 administrator

The Indian Express 19.11.2013

AMC set to open five new English-medium schools

Aiming at providing "affordable" options of English-medium schools to middle class and lower middle class sections, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) school board has planned to add five more English-medium public schools - Ahmedabad Public Schools (APS) - to the existing one at city's Shahpur area, that was inaugurated in May this year.

The areas, where these schools would come up in the coming academic session (that will begin from June 2014), include Dariapur, Gomtipur, Pritampura, Isanpur and Ramapir nu tekra. While the selection of these areas has been done on the basis of a survey, carried out by the board to gauge the demand and possible number of students who would enroll in these schools, the target certainly is the middle class, even slums.

These schools will open in five different zones of Ahmedabad, leaving only the New West zone that is not expected to get one. The school board is also contemplating to rope in non-government organisations and educational societies that could provide support and guidance in setting up these schools.

Apart from providing English-medium municipal schools to residents who cannot afford private schools, the reasons cited by the AMC school board include meeting the demand raised by parents. These new schools would be on the lines of the Shahpur APS; KG I , KG II and Class I. At present, there are nearly 150 students at Shahpur APS, the first English-medium municipal public school.

"Irrespective of community or economic status, the preference for English-medium schools among society has witnessed an increase every year. The AMC school board thought why not start government schools in English medium that do not have issues of exorbitant fee, donations and other additional expenses. Also, the response to APS in Shahpur has been encouraging," said the AMC School Board Chairman Jagdish Bhavsar.

The survey carried out by the board revealed that despite the increasing number of English-medium private schools in the city, they were not running out of students.

Some of the areas covered in the survey included Girdharnagar and Saraspur that have middle and lower middle class population and have witnessed an increase in private schools.

Among the five areas shortlisted for English-medium government schools, the survey revealed, the demand was the highest from Gomtipur. "The residents of Gomtipur have been demanding an English- medium school since last year. The survey has estimated that the school will get over 50 students at the entry level, KG I," said AMC School Board Administrative Officer L D Desai.

The school board is planning to use the existing infrastructure for new schools. For this, the existing school buildings would be used for new schools as rooms are available during morning shifts, similar to the arrangement done in Shahpur. The AMC school board is running 456 municipal schools across Ahmedabad, but the majority of these schools are Gujarati-medium.

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