May stop grants to schools not taking remedial classes: Sawant

Panaji: CM Pramod Sawant said on Tuesday that the government has started taking action against school managements that are not conducting remedial classes, and that such managements may face stoppage of grants. Teachers will also be made more accountable for non-performance, he said at the state teachers’ day event.
“Remedial classes are compulsory,” he said. “Not just a student who stands first at the Goa board exams, we have to also take care of a student who has failed. It is the teacher’s responsibility to show students the right direction. That child also belongs to us. Many fail because they are first-generation learners.”
Through the vidya samiksha kendre office established in the state, the government will soon be able to receive weekly reports of each teacher’s work from the directorate of education, said the CM.
“A teacher will not be able to say that a student who has reached Class IV does not know anything. The teacher will be held accountable,” Sawant said.
The CM and education minister said that there are teachers running part-time businesses in the name of their spouses, and are not fully invested in students.
“Teachers are getting good enough salaries and should work full-time. A teacher should not work on part-time businesses and as LIC agents, contractors, etc. It reduces their focus on teaching. Half their attention then goes into working as LIC agent. Sorry to say this, but the business is usually in the name of their wife, and the teacher is doing the part-time job,” said Sawant.
He said that teachers should instead spend their time in research on how to make teaching innovative.
“If you teach the same thing today which you were teaching in 2010, it will not interest students. Now, students have changed, and they have everything available on Google. If teachers do not change, they will not get respect from students. We cannot use the same techniques that we learnt when we did our BEd and DEd. I hope teachers will upskill themselves accordingly,” said Sawant.
Teachers should also stop trying to bag the state awards through recommendations from politicians, he said.
“All of today’s awards have been given out purely on merit,” he said. “If someone had tried to send recommendations through me, that person would have been dropped even if selected. Many recommendations did come to me. But I never forwarded them to the selection committee. From here on, no teacher should go to any politician for the teachers’ award. It is enough that some go to seek transfers,” said Sawant.
The state is trying to ensure there are no single-teacher government primary schools, and is working to give one teacher for each class from Class I to IV in such schools, he said.
The teachers who were presented with the state teachers’ awards were Sarojini Narayan Gawas of Government Primary School, Thane, Sattari, Ganpatrao Kustobarao Rane of Government High School, Nagargao, Sattari, Diogo S Pinto of SFX High School, Siolim, Devidas Vithoba Kotkar, headmaster, Government High School, Ambedem, Sattari, Subhash Jan of Shree Ameya Higher Secondary School, Curti, Ponda, and Mario Christopher Reuben Costa, principal, VRDA’s Gauncar Higher Secondary School, Raia.