Now, special classes for primary students

In a bid to strengthen the knowledge base of students in primary schools, the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan initiated a special campaign last month for 65 lakh students of Class II and III across the state.

In a bid to strengthen the knowledge base of students in primary schools, the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan SSA initiated a special campaign last month for 65 lakh students of Class II and III across the state.

As part of the campaign, the SSA has introduced remedial classes with specially designed curriculum for the students. Focusing on only two subjects for now 8212; Hindi and mathematics 8212; the authorities are planning to extend it to other subjects from the next year.

In this, a class is divided into four groups. Supervised by the teacher, the groups are formed with an academically strong student appointed as the peer leader, who helps the teacher. 8220;The campaign will continue for 30 working days in Lucknow. These classes will provide an opportunity to even weak students to cover the syllabus,8221; said a senior SSA official.

Additional Director, Basic Lucknow Mahendra Singh Rana said: 8220;At present, officials are inspecting various schools to ascertain if the curriculum is being followed. The problem arises when a student does not attend the class. In that case, the student misses the syllabus assigned for the day. We then have to take measures to cover the missed syllabus.8221;

Another problem faced is the number of working days assigned to cover the course. 8220;If a teacher is absent on a particular day, the syllabus for the day is missed and the 30 working day period has to be extended,8221; said Rana.

An NGO, Pratham Education Foundation, is helping the SSA in executing the campaign. 8220;We presented a recent survey report in this connection to the SSA on Saturday. While surveying the projects, lots of issues have come to the fore. Among others, the teaching and learning material received by several schools were not as per requirement,8221; said Ashish Kumar Sharma, Uttar Pradesh Rural Programme co-ordinator from the NGO.

The survey was conducted in the districts of Jhansi, Sonbhadra, Mahoba, Kannauj, Allahabad, Kaushambi, Azamgarh and Mau.