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Subject specialists roped in to help prepare for state skills test
Ritu Chowdhary, district project coordinator, Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), said that subject specialists are provided to ease the learning gaps and challenges that students and teachers may face.
The district education department has roped in subject specialists to guide students and teachers in their preparation for the next round of Saksham Plus exam — a statewide initiative that tests grade-level competency in government schools — which is scheduled to take place in the first week of November.
Ritu Chowdhary, district project coordinator, Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), said that subject specialists are provided to ease the learning gaps and challenges that students and teachers may face. However, there had been a deficit of these teachers due to administrative delays and the need was now being met.
The SSA is an overarching programme for school education from pre-school to class 12.
“These additional resource persons are responsible for introducing and familiarising both teachers and students with new teaching techniques. They focus on ways through which students’ competency and skills can be improved,” Chowdhary said.
The district has four education blocks and each block needs to have five subject specialists, known as block resource persons (BRPs), which means a total of 20 BRPs in the district.
So far, the department had only six BRPs against the required mandate of 20.
Similarly, there are 80 clusters (one cluster has 10-12 schools) in the district, and each cluster needs to have one assistant block resource coordinator (ABRC). So far, the department has only 6 ABRCs.
The deficit is being bridged now, with 64 subject specialists (8BRPs + 56 ABRCs), taking charge from Tuesday, and more expected to join in the coming days. These subject specialists will help teachers in using effective ways of teaching.
“The need for these specialists was particularly felt since students need to be taught differently for the Saksham exam. The focus is on testing competencies and we are making efforts to ensure that all support is provided to the students,” Chowdhary added.
