No decision yet on NEP for Std IX, review meet today

SCHOOLS TO UNDERGO ASSESSMENT FOR PREPAREDNESS

The State government has taken no decision to implement the National Education Policy 2020 in Class IX as yet and a review meeting to assess the preparedness of schools for it will be held on Friday based on which a decision will then be taken.

Education Secretary, Prasad Lolayekar, IAS, said the ‘review meeting’ will be held by the Education Department on Friday which will assess schools for their readiness to implement the NEP for Class IX in Goa.

A decision whether to implement NEP in the schools this year or in the next academic year will only be taken by the government only after this review meeting,” Lolayekar said.

Currently, the NEP is being followed since the beginning of the last academic year only at the pre-primary level.

The issue of implementing the NEP in higher classes from this academic year has been bothering the minds of academics, administrators and the teaching community in Goa over the last several weeks owing to the sweeping changes the policy mandates for choice of subjects and in particular the downgrading of weightage for ‘third language’ for which students commonly opt for a foreign language.

ADMISSION TO STD 11 FOR ALL

Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has said that no student would be left without getting admission to Std 11 this year.

Sawant’s assertion underscores the critical importance of ensuring that every student has access to education, particularly at the crucial juncture of transitioning to Standard 11.

The State has 104 higher secondary schools including nine government, 91 government-aided and four unaided HSSs, he added.

NO CHANGE IN STD 6 BOOKS

An official from the Education Department has said that the textbooks for Std 6 will remain unchanged due to the fact that they are not yet finalised for implementation.

However, the officials also said that there will be revisions in the curriculum for Std 3, with three textbooks slated for modification.

3 LAKH FREE NOTEBOOKS

The government will be distributing around 3 lakh notebooks to students. A tender has been floated for printing and supply of 309,482 notebooks -- 1,07,068 hundred pages and 2,02,414 two hundred pages books.

The notebooks will have branding, publicity of government policies and schemes on back cover page and inside back page of the notebook.