CM meets edu officials to find ways to improve students’ performance

Panaji: Chief minister Pramod Sawant held discussions and deliberations on improving the performance of the state mainly in mathematics vis-a-vis the findings of the National Achievement Survey (NAS). The state government is likely to take a decision to encourage continuous improvement among teachers and students to improve the performance of Goan students, especially in mathematics.
The average scores of Goan students is considerably below the national average in mathematics across the classes of III, V, VIII and X.
Sawant, who also holds the education portfolio, chaired a meeting of education department officials on Tuesday. Discussions took place regarding improving the performance of the state as per findings of NAS, especially in mathematics.
Vidyavriksh.com’s learning companion Siddharaj Mopkar presented a roadmap to overcome this issue with the inputs from the director of education and others.
Peer learning environment should be created in the state, Mopkar told TOI. He said that mathematics festivals should be organised in each taluka with workshops, projects exhibition and math competitive exams, among others.
“Continues improvement should be the mantra for improving learning outcomes in the state,” Mopkar said. “Teachers should meet to share ideas on teaching and create a framework where they create support systems from other teachers for better teaching.”
During the presentation, citing survey reports Mopkar said, “If teachers handhold students and give confidence that he/she can perform better then there is 70% growth in the performance of the children.”
“Early childhood education should be strengthened and even parents should be involved. Research has pointed out that if a child is not performing in math at grade II then he will face difficulties in future and multiple intervention in higher class do not improve their results. Early childhood education determines performance in later life,” Mopkar said.
The chief minister had said that the state government will make necessary student-centric changes in the education sector in the coming days as 80% of students study in government-aided schools.
The state is considering implementing Central Civil Service (CCS) conduct rules for new recruitments of teachers in government-aided schools. The move comes after students from Goa scored below the national average in mathematics and some other subjects.