Gujarat govt announces weekly school tests from December

With barely a few months to go for the National Achievement Survey (NAS), the state government has swung into action, to better the results this time. Facing criticism for failing to do a lot in primary education, the government has decided to introduce weekly tests in schools for students of classes 3-8. Starting from December 22, students will appear for tests every Saturday with Gujarati being the first paper followed by Math, Environment, English, Hindi and so on.

The NAS survey, which was conducted in all the 33 districts of the state, interviewing over 1.25 lakh students, showed a consistent decline in the learning levels of students in mathematics, languages and science from Class III to Class VIII in the government school system — both government schools and government-aided schools.

Confirming the same, state education minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama said, "We had got cent percent score in infrastructure but in learning outcomes, we lagged behind. This idea emerged from Mission Vidya, which was launched this year to focus on weak students in every class.

Students of a private school have lot of benefits as their parents are educated so they pay attention to their wards. Whereas the situation in government schools, city and rural, is bad as in many cases, parents are not educated so they are unable to pay attention to the children."

Teachers, in several meetings in the past, have claimed that while they teach the syllabus properly, students do not understand. "I wanted to end this cycle. The weekly tests will actually show the progress of a child, which was not seen in half-yearly exams. This way, teachers will know where the students are lagging behind," Chudasama added.