Govt plans bio-metric machines in schools

Tribune News Service

Shimla, May 26

The government is mulling installation of bio-metric machines in schools to bring discipline for quality education. As many as 136 schools at the sub-tehsil level will have bio-metric machines by July to keep an eye on punctuality and check absenteeism. This was informed by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh here today.

He said a Directorate of Inspection would be set up in which the performance of teachers would be evaluated. They would be empowered to take a suitable action and conduct sudden inspection in schools.

Addressing a conference on the quality of education in the state for deputy directors of both higher and elementary education departments, district project officers and cluster heads, including principals of high schools and above, he said, “We need to evaluate the performance of every child and pay more attention to the weaker ones, besides evaluating the performance of teachers.”

“I personally recommend starting monthly or quarterly tests for students, especially in primary schools, so that the performance of students could be assessed better, he said adding that tests help the teachers in evaluating the performance of each student and the standard of education in schools.

The grading system has weakened the basic education set up as the child can’t perform well in higher classes and it becomes too late to learn at a later stage,” he said. The government has made it mandatory to teach Hindi, Mathematics and English to students from the very first class so that they could perform better while pursuing higher education.

He said the government was also considering opening of specialised colleges on particular subjects such as the College of fine arts, music, sciences to give a better choice to students in pursuing their career. “There are many educational institutions in the state. Now, we need to strengthen the existing schools, provide them with best infrastructure and fill up vacancies to provide quality education,” he said.

He warned teachers to concentrate more on their job rather than indulging in politics and added that they should create an atmosphere of studies in educational institutions.

The Chief Minister laid the foundation stone of a Sanskrit college at Phagli at a cost of Rs 8 crore.