Daily lesson plan rule for Maharashtra school teachers scrapped

After protests from teachers’ associations, the state education department has exempted them from preparing daily lesson plans.

After protests from teachers’ associations, the state education department has exempted them from preparing daily lesson plans.

HT Image

In a recent circular, the Maharashtra State Council of Educational Research and Training (MSCERT) scrapped an earlier rule where it was mandatory for teachers to write a daily lesson plan and submit a detailed yearly report of the same to the school every year. A lesson plan outlines the expected learning outcomes from each concept taught in class and lists the method used while teaching the same.

Many teachers’ organisations had earlier argued that since each student has different ways of learning the same concept, specific goals need to be set on an individual basis. Owing to this, the daily, weekly and monthly planning done in the traditional format were becoming redundant, according to many teachers. While the education department had already clarified that making of such daily plans need not be made compulsory for teachers in a circular dated June 22, 2015, teachers said that many schools were still insisting on it in the absence of clear guidelines.

“Currently, students are taught under the new activity-based pattern where the focus is on diverse learning methods. At such a point, making a lesson plan in this format would mean spending nearly an hour daily for over seven lakh teachers in the state. It is good that the government decided to scrap it,” said Anil Bornare, a city-based teacher and city coordinator for Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) affiliated teachers’ association.