Far-reaching reforms in school education in TS

HYDERABAD: In its pursuit to bring in far-reaching reforms in school education in the State, the Telangana government has proposed a major overhaul vis-a-vis public examinations held for tenth class.

Though perceived as a bold reform to discourage the students from rote learning what lacks is a robust mechanism to carry out a transparent internal assessment proposed as part of these reforms, among others.

While the idea behind these changes was mooted in the erstwhile united AP by issuing an order (GO Ms No 17, May 2014), the truncated AP refrained itself from these changes.

However, the Telangana government gave its nod to bring in reforms after tweaking the existing GO. A separate GO (GO Ms No 2) has been issued by the Telangana government to facilitate the changes.

If implemented, this will be the first after a period of 42 years when changes were made to curriculum in tenth standard last time.

Based on the Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) system, it is proposed to allot 20 marks in each subject for internal assessment carried throughout the academic year in form of four summative tests handled by school themselves.

Unlike, previous years the external exam is conducted only for 80 marks, while 20 marks are drawn from the internal exams to make up a grand total of 100 marks.

To suit needs of the internal assessment, textbooks have also been reworked incorporating exercises at the end of each chapter to enable students to think analytically than just mug up answers available in question banks.

However, the number of question papers will remain same ' 11 papers. The practice of two papers for all subjects expect for second language will continue as usual. The maximum marks in each paper are 40 marks.

Another major reform that will have a major impact is out-of-school (private) candidates cannot appear for the SSC Public Examination held in March. As awarding internal marks for such candidates is not possible, private candidates were asked to shift to National or State Open School systems.

Among host of other changes, the government has decided to scrap composite courses in language subjects like Telugu and Sanskrit; Urdu and Hindi/Arabic/Persia; Marathi and Hindi. The government cited the lack of of adequate teachers to deal with Arabic, Sanskrit and Persian languages.

When asked about the wide-ranging reforms director and commissioner of School Education M Jagadeeshwar said, 'The present reforms are culmination of years of research and work done by the department in an effort to contextualise curriculum in view of changing times.'