Pulwama: The teachers community in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district have shown mixed response to the uniform timetable launched across all government schools in the district.
The uniform timetable was launched three weeks ago across all grades from primary to senior secondary classes.
The new time table begins at 10:00 am with 30 minute morning assembly and ends at 4:00 pm .
It recommends uniform subjects to be taught for a particular class at a particular time across all schools in the district. Each theoretical class is of 40 minutes duration, practical classes for 50 minutes and the lunch break for 30 minutes.
There is provision for games, arts in education and play way method for KG.
“ The uniform time table is good for administrative aspect, it will help administrative officials in effective supervision and monitoring,” a teacher of a government school said.
He said that another positive is that provision has been made for games and activity based learning for lower primary classes.
He, however, said that there are certain loopholes which need to be addressed.
Another teacher said that 30 minute duration for morning assembly and lunch break needs to be reviewed.
He said that 30 minutes is too little to hold morning assembly for 80 or 100 students.
“ We have to serve mid-day meals among 200 students. It is very much problematic to do this service in just 30 minutes,” he said, adding that dearth of teaching staff is also an impediment to the implementation of the uniform timetable.
Another teacher said that a uniform time table should take regional, social and geographical factors into account.
“ It is not feasible to have a similar time table for urban and hilly tribal areas,” the teacher said, adding that the topographical variations play an important part in deciding time table.
Chief Education Officer Pulwama, Nazir Ahmad Reshi, told Rising Kashmir that he made a detailed analysis of the education sector in his district in terms of infrastructure, human resource and enrollment.
“ The results of the analysis were shocking which compelled me to take certain initiatives,” he said, adding that he found many posts of lecturers in various higher secondary schools were vacant.
“ To ensure availability of teachers , upgradation of their skill and attendance of students in the schools a common time table was framed with support from district administration,” he said, adding that this an initiative that focuses on use of ICT ( information and communication technology).
“By virtue of this common time table we make it sure that none of the students remains unaddressed. We can use ICT platform because government has given us enough space to learn about online teaching, we are using it,” he said, adding that common time table enables effective monitoring possible.
