This year is considered as the year of excellence. We are focusing on many things. The main change that happened in the last two years was the development of the public education sector which included both the government and aided sectors. The primary level and higher level of both government and aided sectors comes under the public education sector. The second preference is to bring about a change in the education system coming under these sectors. Till this time we have given importance to Teacher-Centered Education. But now onwards we will focus on Child- Centered Education. The problem with the teachercentered education is that a whole classroom of students is considered as one unit. But the ability of each student in handling each subject is different. Some will be good in Mathematics, some will be good in music or dance or painting. So while focusing on Child-Centered Education, we consider each student in a class as a single unit. To find their abilities, we are planning to give necessary advices to parents and bring changes in teaching methodology too. We will introduce new methods of teaching. For that we will give orientation classes for teachers.
The Government has taken certain steps in this regard. First one is the development of infrastructure since public educational institutions should be attractive in all the sense with state-of-the-art facilities. The project in this regard was inaugurated at Kazhakootam in Thiruvananthapuram recently. Around 141 schools will be renovated in the capital district alone and a total number of 520 have been selected for this across the State.
The second step is the digitalization of classrooms which will be completed by the end of this year. The high school and higher secondary classes of selected schools will become high-tech. Other than textbooks, information regarding each topic will be uploaded in the systems by teachers which will help students gather a visual backup for what they learn in the classroom.
The third step in this regard is the preparation of comprehensive master plan by each school for enhancing the academic excellence. Kerala will be the first State in the country to introduce such a plan. Academic master plan is not just about learning the lessons in text books. The final step will be to prepare an individual master plan which focuses on the varied talents of students. Even if a student opts to become an engineer, he will also be given training to develop other talents.
Another major initiative in the Education sector is the setting up biodiversity parks in all schools across the State. Thirty three percent of the premises of each school will be earmarked for setting up gardens. These parks will actually take the role of textbooks in giving students basic lessons on biodiversity. Another area of focus will be to effect a major change in the question paper setting for public exams aimed at reducing the fear of exams among certain students. Newer patterns which provide liberal options for students will be tried. The Government plans to successfully implement all these reforms within a span of five years are there by bring about a visible and positive change in the State’s education sector.
