Ahmedabad: Now the government primary teachers have agreed to start uploading the results of ‘ekum kasauti’ or unit tests on the dedicated online platform. This was decided in the meeting between Education Minister Jitu Vaghani, senior education department officials and representatives of Gujarat Primary Teachers Association
The government primary teachers have not uploaded the results of these tests conducted so far for this academic session citing it as an “over burdening” and “time-consuming” exercise.
“Our only request is to let teachers teach and spare them from other unwanted workload. So we had requested to decrease the frequency and take it only once a month. So far, there has been no decision on that so we will start uploading the results,” said Gujarat Primary Teachers Association Digvijaysinh Jadeja.
The association had also recently submitted a representation to Education secretary Vinod Rao requesting the same.
“So far there is no change in ekum kasauti and these will be held as planned. Teachers have also started uploading the results,” Education Secretary Vinod Rao told The Indian Express.
The representation stated that based on requests from teachers from different districts on changes in ekum kasauti the association had recommended to conduct these only once a month — last Saturday of each month.
“Teachers face a lot of difficulty in taking these tests, evaluating them and then based on the results conduct remedial teaching for students. All this takes majority of teaching hours,” the representation stated.
“Also, students get tired of writing these tests for all subjects, the teachers body had stated. “So to make them effective, the number of tests should be reduced and conducted only once a month,” it added.
The unit tests was launched in 2019 for 25 marks from class 3 and and was conducted weekly. The initiative started by Vinod Rao aimed at regular monitoring of students’ learning levels on the lines of private schools.
However, during the Covid-19 pandemic, the frequency was reduced, and the teachers had to distribute question papers to students at their residences.
With reopening of schools in August this year post pandemic, teachers have also been complaining that the work load has increased.
Other pending issue of teachers discussed during the meeting included revising the teachers transfer policy for which the education department has constituted a committee to suggest changes in the policy framed over ten years now.
Rounds of discussions are going on for revising the transfer policy, added Rao.
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