The General Education Department in Kerala has introduced a comprehensive program to assess academic standards in public schools. This initiative involves an external committee, comprising Education Department officials and sector experts, along with self-evaluation by each school.
According to the government’s notification, the committee’s findings, coupled with those from individual schools, will inform targeted measures to address identified issues. The evaluation process encompasses self-assessment by teachers, evaluation by the School Resource Group (SRG), and a third evaluation by principals. Post-evaluation, the SRG will convene to propose solutions.
An external evaluation is slated to follow, although the notification lacks details on the panel’s composition and expert selection, leading some to express concerns about potential political interference. A teacher remarked, “This is apparently a move to provide an opportunity for political interference in the academic matters of schools.”
Supervision of the program involves officials ranging from Deputy Directors to district coordinators at the district and educational district levels. At the sub-district level, the Assistant Education Officer (AEO) and DIET faculty will oversee the process. Critics, like Anil M George, the general secretary of the teachers’ organization HSSTA, argue that competent officials familiar with the syllabus and higher secondary subjects should exclusively handle program supervision.
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