Meeting discusses ways of improving students’ performance

VILLUPURAM: “We are looking at ways to enhance students’ performance in the public examinations,” School Education Minister Thangam Thennarasu said on Wednesday.

He was chairing a review meeting here with the Secretary, Directors, Chief Educational Officers, District Educational Officers and other department officials.

The review meeting for the Chennai zone, which includes Chennai, Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram, Tiruvannamalai and Villupuram, was aimed at addressing students’ pass percentage, vacancies in schools and infrastructure in rural schools.

“Teachers will look at students’ marks in the quarterly examination and classify them according to the number of subjects they pass in. Students who fail in one subject will be given additional coaching in that subject,” Mr.Thennarasu said. If many students were found performing poorly in one particular subject in a school, the teacher would receive additional training.

The department would take a close look at the progress made after the introduction of the Activity-Based Learning modules and the Active Learning Methodology in schools. “We intend grading schools as ‘A,’ ‘B,’ and ‘C’ as per their performance, and we will work towards equipping the ‘B’ category schools to graduate to ‘A’ and the ‘C’ schools to ‘B’.” Progress made in creating infrastructure with the funds allocated by the NABARD would also be reviewed, he said.

“Vacancies in schools will be identified and an adequate number of teachers posted. A Government Order has been issued for the appointment of 800 teachers.” Till then, as a temporary measure, educated youth would be roped in to teach students in schools that did not have enough teachers, he said.