While lauding the concerted dedicated efforts of the officials and teachers of Punjab Education Department, which have virtually transformed the unprecedented challenge posed by the pandemic covid-19 into an opportunity to lend new dimensions to the quality education during 2020, the Education Secretary, Krishan Kumar, exhorted the District Education Officers, school heads and teachers to focus on achieving ‘Mission Shat Pratishat’ in the ensuing PSEB examinations. He was addressing the DEOs, school heads and teachers via Edusat today.
It is worthwhile to mention here that the Chief Minister, Captain Amarinder Singh, launched the ‘Mission Shat Pratishat’ in November last year, while presiding over the first phase of the ‘Smart Phone distribution’. The Chief Minister has also lauded the dedicated efforts of the teachers during the past more than three years especially COVID-19 era, to implement the "Sikhiya Sudhar Muhim" of the Education department at the ground zero level.
Though, the dreaded Pandemic Covid-19 forced the closure of schools in the fag end of the previous academic session, posing grave situation as well as challenge to the education department. However, the Education Department, explored new vistas of digital applications and succeeded in making new strides in its enrollment drive and launched "Ghar Baithe Sikhiya" programme to take the classroom teaching virtually in each and every home via TV, Radio, youtube, google channels using latest digital applications.
The initiatives launched by the Education Department coupled with consistent, concerted and dedicated efforts of the school teachers helped in achieving incredible results, said Krishan Kumar.
He said that the the school heads, teachers, non teaching employees, Mid Day Meal workers have come forward to mobilise parents, SMCs, village panchayats, NGOs etc. to convert the drive to provide quality education during COVID- 19 into a movement.
“The employees of the Education Department acted as "Corona Warriors" in letter and spirit to provide textbooks, mid day meal ration, ensuring participation of students in "Ghar Baithe Sikhiya" Punjab achievement Survey, google quizzes, Vidhayak Muqable to commemorate the 400th Parkash Utsav of Guru Teg Bahadur ji by devising innovative initiatives like ‘Buddy Groups'.
The capacity building of school teachers and students was done and students were prepared for the national and state level competitive examinations - NTSE, NMMS, PSTSE etc. The virtual parents teachers meetings, in interactions with lakhs of parents were made by the teachers to take feedback, were also organised, said Krishan Kumar while enumerating the various achievements of the department.
Now, the "Mission Shat Pratishat" is not just a utopia for the Education Department but a well conceived plan by the department, which could be accomplished with determination, dedication and zeal among the teachers to translate the same at the cutting edge level, further said the Education Secretary by adding that the Education Department had made effective steps to analyse the performance of the students by mobilising all the school heads to prepare the PPTs based data analysis of the performance of each and every student in different subjects in the house examinations during the current academic session. The exercise was aimed at devising the strategy so that individual attention to the weak, average and meritorious students could be given accordingly.
The simplified material for the weak students and exclusive material and coaching for the meritorious students has been prepared. Besides, Model question papers in each and every subject have been prepared and put on the Punjab Educare App for the convenience of the teachers and the students so that preparation for the ensuing Board examinations could be geared up meticulously.
Besides taking online classes, the school teachers, braving the extreme cold conditions as well as adhering to the precautions pertaining to COVID-19, have started taking extra classes. The Punjab government has also provided Smart Phones and tablets to the students to enable them to have access to the latest digital applications for continuing their study as well as preparation for the PSEB examinations.
With the help of the vast and well knit social media network, the Education Department has successfully been reaching out to each and every student. The study material, model question papers and google quizzes are being made available to the teachers and the students through Whatsapp groups. The teachers have been keeping themselves in constant touch with the students and their parents to ensure continuous monitoring of the activities of the students with regard to the preparation for the examinations.
The Education Secretary also asked the DEOs, Zila Sikhiya Sudhar teams, District and Block Mentors belonging to different subjects to ensure motivational monitoring at the ground level so that the availability of simplified material, model question papers, and continuous analysis of progress report on the basis of regular tests could be done to accomplish the mission successfully.