E-Paper
NAS preparations: Education dept faces flak from parents for pressuring kids
The education department is facing criticism for its tactics to prepare students for the National Achievement Survey (NAS), with parents saying their children are being put under extreme pressure
The education department is facing criticism for its tactics to prepare students for the National Achievement Survey (NAS), with parents saying their children are being put under extreme pressure.
Parents were on Wednesday asked to fill an online form pertaining to how their children are preparing for NAS at home during parent-teacher meetings organised at government schools in the district.
Arvind Kumar, whose ward is a student of Class 8, termed it an intrusion into their child’s privacy and blamed schools for putting them under extreme pressure.
“Schools are monitoring kids rigorously. Now, we have been asked every detail of our child‘s routine at home through form. We have been asked to answer questions like the time our children wakes up and goes to bed; how much time they study using mobile phones, if they are preparing for NAS or not and how they are preparing. Students are already studying hard for NAS at schools and the education department now wants to monitor them at home. This can affect their physical and mental health,” he said.
While many parents didn’t have smartphones, a few were reluctant to fill those forms, as they either didn’t know the online process or had to return to work.
In that case, teachers were seen directing the students to fill the form for their parents, which eventually defeated the purpose. After filling the form, the students were asked to submit it and to share the screen shot of the submission with the teacher concerned .
A school principal, on the condition of anonymity, said, “Teachers are also getting overburdened now. We get lots of material related to NAS every week and teachers get confused about how to make children study the NAS modules along with the main syllabus. This meeting with parents is aimed towards encouraging them to send their children to school, so that they can prepare for NAS and also to request them to motivate and monitor the child’s preparations at home”, said principal.
In order to increase the participation of the students in NAS preparations, district education officer Lakhvir Singh Samra chaired an online video conference with school heads and the principals on Saturday and directed them to motivate the parents to regularly talk with their children about the ongoing preparations at schools.
