Jamnagar City District News Samachar Saurashtra Gujarat India

Primary school students can't name days of week.

Gunotsav, a Gujarat government initiated three-day programme to implement benchmarks of quality in primary education has revealed many startling lapses in schools of Jamnagar district.

Around 3,000 officers including IAS, IFS and IPS visited schools across the state and evaluated the education standard, infrastructure along with other things from November 23 to 25.

Schools in Jamnagar districts were also evaluated and in many of the schools on coastal area students were not even able to read or write properly.

In Khambhalia taluka shala number 2, MLA Meghji Kanjariya visited the school and found it difficult to get the students of standard III to answer simple questions like the names of the seven days in a week.

Deputy collector Alokkumar Pandey, who visited three schools in Khambhalia, said that performance of students was just above average in standards V, VI and VII, but in standards IV and lower, the performance was bad. Also, in some schools where students from minority community are in majority, performance is not satisfactory.

The mid-day meal scheme was at par, but there were no playgrounds for the students as schools were situated in congested areas. In Khambhalia, 51 schools out of total 210 schools were evaluated.

District education officer (primary) of Jamnagar, RM Ambaliya, said that there are 1,300 primary schools in Jamnagar district out of which 25 per cent schools, a total 342 schools, were covered in last three days. About 114 officers were sent to various schools for evaluation. There was a mixed opinion in rural area performance of the students, especially in the coastal areas.

A tuition class teacher in Salaya, Aziza Bhaya said, "When students of standard IV and V come to me for tuition, I have to start from basic alphabets. One of the students who did not know even the alphabets is able to read a poem in a period of six months; it's not the student to blame but our teaching system."

The officers have been given a kit for conducting evaluation to judge four aspects of learning of students. Reading, writing, arithmetic and participation of students in extracurricular activities, are the parameters which were checked to evaluate the performance of a school.