Jhajjar state’s first ‘Saksham’ district

JHAJJAR: Jhajjar has achieved the distinction of becoming the first fully Saksham district in the state with all its five blocks being given the status on getting gradelevel competency

Updated At : 05:32 AM Dec 14, 2018 IST

Representational image

Ravinder Saini
Tribune News Service
Jhajjar, December 13

Jhajjar has achieved the distinction of becoming the first fully ‘Saksham’ district in the state, with all its five blocks being given the status on getting grade-level competency. The district has five educational blocks and four — Matanhel, Beri, Salhavaas and Bahadurgarh — were declared ‘Saksham’ earlier while the last one — Jhajjar — achieved the status when results of ‘Saksham Ghoshna’ Round-6 were declared two days ago.

Interestingly, none of the blocks in nine districts of the state have so far got the tag of ‘Saksham’.

Jhajjar is followed by Mahendragarh with four out of its five blocks being declared ‘Saksham’ and three of five blocks in Panipat have been declared ‘Saksham’, sources said.

The ‘Saksham’ scheme aims at raising the learning level of students of government schools and ensuring that they have the knowledge of subjects as per their age group. As per the criteria, a block with more than 80 per cent students at grade level is declared ‘Saksham’ under the scheme, launched in October 2017.

“There are 119 educational blocks in the state and 21 among them have been declared ‘Saksham’ after the six rounds of grade-level examinations, while none of the blocks in nine districts, including Nuh, Fatehabad, Ambala, Yamunangar, Hisar, Panchkula, Palwal, Kurukshetra and Faridabad, have got the status yet,” Sudarshan Punia, Nodal Officer (Saksham), Jhajjar, said.

He maintained that two blocks each in Rohtak, Charkhi Dadri and Gurugram had been declared ‘Saksham’.

“If a block feels that 80 per cent of its students have achieved grade-level competency, it nominates itself under ‘Saksham Ghoshana’. The state verifies their nomination through a third-party assessment. Students of classes III, V and VII are then assessed in language (Hindi) and mathematics on a sample basis. A scientific sampling method is used to choose schools which are the best representation of rural, urban, boys, girls, primary and secondary,” said Sonal Goel, Deputy Commissioner, Jhajjar.

Goel said the third party assessment is conducted in these schools by Gray Matters India, a Hyderabad-based company. On the basis of this assessment’s outcome, it is decided whether the block has actually become ‘Saksham’ or not. The latest round of assessments was held on November 22, in which 25 blocks participated from 17 districts, she added.

All about scheme

The ‘Saksham’ scheme aims at raising the learning level of students of government schools and ensuring that they have the knowledge of subjects as per their age group. As per the criteria, a block with more than 80 per cent students at grade level is declared ‘Saksham’ under the scheme, launched in October 2017.
Jhajjar is followed by Mahendragarh with four out of its five blocks being declared ‘Saksham’ and three of five blocks in Panipat have been declared ‘Saksham’.
Two blocks each in Rohtak, Charkhi Dadri and Gurugram had been declared ‘Saksham’.
None of the blocks in nine districts, including Nuh, Fatehabad, Ambala, Yamunangar, Hisar, Panchkula, Palwal, Kurukshetra and Faridabad, have got the status yet.