Remedial classes a big failure in Andhra Pradesh

Vijayawada: Concrete changes taken up by the Andhra Pradesh Commissionerate for School Education (APCSE) are failing due to poor planning and lack of teachers. The remedial class system taken up by the department has got a poor response and the government will soon announce summer holidays citing rising temperatures. The Education depa-rtment, as announced earlier, had completed the final examinations of academic year 2016-17 by March 20 and started remedial teaching classes to motivate and support backward students.

The school education department had prepared classwise materials for remedial coaching and started distributing them to the schools. Majority of teachers at high schools were busy attending SSC spot valuation at district headquarters, while remedial classes were being handled by the remaining teachers in the school along with non-teaching staff. Teachers unions slammed the government for the sudden and thoughtless decision.

“Lack of proper planning from higher officials is posing burden on teacher. Everyone in the department knows that spot evaluation will commence after examinations every year and there will be shortage of teachers in school. But officials changed the academic calendar without considering these issues, which led to the failure of remedial classes,” said Joint Action Committee of Teachers Organisations (JACTO) chairman M. Kama-lakar. “Education department, which focused on preparing remedial teaching material, failed to distribute it to the schools. While asked about materials, officials are suggesting to download the versions available online, which was not accessible for rural background students,” said Andhra Pradesh Teachers Organisation (FAPTO) joint secretary Hrudaya Raju.