July 27, 2015 | India Didactics Association

Improving Learning and Educational Standards

The Ministry of Human Resource Development launched Rashtriya Aavishkar Abhiyan (RAA) programme on 9th July, 2015, inter alia, as a sub-component of SSA and Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA), to motivate and engage children of the age group 6-18 years in Science, Mathematics and Technology through observation, experimentation, inference drawing, model building, etc. both through inside and outside classroom activities and processes.

In addition under SSA programme, a total of 19.78 lakh teacher posts have been sanctioned, against which 15.59 lakh teacher posts have been filled up by States/UTs, upto 31st March, 2015 to improve pupil-teacher ratios, imparting of regular annual-in-service teacher training to all teachers to update their skills & knowledge, distribution of free textbooks to children and providing on-site academic support to teachers through Block Resource Centres and cluster Resource Centres. States/UTs have also been assisted to conduct comprehensive external student assessment surveys to access gaps in student learning, in order to undertake corrective action. Under Computer Aided Learning (CAL) component of SSA, States/UTs have been supported financially to promote e-learning of Science and Mathematics at Upper Primary level.

UGC requests Universities to shift to Grading System of Evaluation

The UGC has informed that under CBCS, universities are requested to shift from numerical marking system, which is followed presently in universities, to grading system of evaluation. The grading system is considered to be better than the conventional marks system and hence it has been followed in the top institutions in India and abroad. This will facilitate student mobility across institutions within and across countries and also enable potential employers to assess the performance of students.

Further, under CBCS, Universities will move from the conventional annual system to semester system. The semester system accelerates the teaching-learning process and enables vertical and horizontal mobility in learning. The credit based semester system provides flexibility in assigning credits based on the course content and hours of teaching. The guidelines issued by UGC are available at http://www.ugc.ac.in/pdfnews/9555132_Guidelines.pdf

The UGC has informed that all the 39 Central Universities, funded by the UGC, are going to implement the Choice Based Credit System from the ensuing academic session. In addition, 21 State Public Universities, 5 State Private Universities and 6 Deemed to be Universities have also expressed their readiness for implementing CBCS.