‘Out-of-box’ suggestions to bring educational reforms

Ludhiana: With government seeking ideas and suggestions from teachers for bringing ‘out of the box’ educational reforms and implementing the Delhi model of education, teachers have sent the feedback form to state education department.
On May 10, chief minister Bhagwant Mann held a meeting with the government school principals of the state seeking input from them to raise the bar of school education. Following which a feedback form was received by 1,525 school heads on May 13 and had to send the inputs by May 20. TOI talked to principals of government schools to get a gist of their ideas and demands like filling up of vacant teaching posts and non-teaching posts by rationalisation and also sought the charge of additional schools only within districts, as many of the principals are suffering at present.

The school heads wanted the constitution of the academic council and the release of the academic calendar for the smooth running of the education system. They have specifically mentioned that “The department lacks coordination therefore a proper feedback channel must be established to get suggestions from the field. Hence, an academic council should be constituted.”
Besides this, the school principals demand a helpline number. A principal from Jagraon block said, “Release of helpline numbers for students, parents and staff grievances and public grievances would eliminate most of the issues school authorities face on a day-to-day basis.”
The feedback form has also asked about the quality education and three- major challenges that principals face as school leaders and asked for the support you need in solving these challenges in your school.
Where most of the heads stated, “The projects of the private companies started by the previous government like Khan Academy must be stopped as academics suffer when they spend too much focus on them. If seeking help from private donors, a committee should be constituted to get maximum benefit under CSR from private companies.”
For students, they demand a complete fee waiver for children having both parents have expired and reforms needed in PSEB. A principal from Khanna block said, “The fee charged by PSEB is too much where the committee should be formed to fix board fees by studying other board fee structures. The useless fee such as the certificate fee, the registration fee may be omitted for government school students.”
They also demand timely delivery of books. The principal further added, “Textbooks never reach students on time, as there is a lot of corruption involved in tendering of books. This is a very big nexus that needs to be highlighted.”
For the principal themselves, they add, “Appointment of district education officers (DEO), and deputy DEO should be done based on seniority only. Apart from this, removing block mentors and district mentors who are out from the school for inspection should come back to the school as there are no departmental posts and schools are at loss.”