Number of Punjabi periods doubled in Punjab's govt schools

Balwant Garg

Faridkot, December 1

The School Education Department has doubled the amount of class time devoted to Punjabi subject for Class VI to VIII students of government schools in the state.

As per the instructions issued to all schools, now all upper-primary students (Class VI to VIII) will have minimum 12 classes (each of 40 minutes) for Punjabi subject every week. These classes have been increased from six to 12. The number of classes for mathematics and English has also been increased from eight to nine each every week.

Under educational initiative Mission Samarth, these classes for these three subjects have been increased with an aim to bolster the numeracy and literacy skills of Class III to VIII students of government schools.

The instructions, issued by the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) to all schools, reads that all primary class students (Class III to V) will have minimum one hour classes each in Punjabi, mathematics and English daily.

For upper primary students (Class VI to VIII), while there will be a minimum of two periods for Punjabi, one period each will be for mathematics and English daily.

Mission Samarth has been started after several studies and surveys suggested that a large number of children in government schools in the state still can neither read basic text nor can they do simple calculations.

The aim of Mission Samarth is to identify such children and provide them support and learning environment to bring them on a par with the required learning levels. Under Mission Samarth, educators will employ the ‘Teaching at the Right Level’ (TaRL) approach to gauge students’ proficiency levels and provide targeted support mainly in Punjabi, maths and English subjects.

School principals have been tasked with evaluating students from Class III to VIII and categorising them into two groups -– level 1 (basic) and level 2 (advanced).

Educational materials, including modules and worksheets, have been prepared for these subjects and have been distributed at the block level under the supervision of District Education Officers.

So far, all upper primary students in government schools have 48 classes every week. While the number of Punjabi, English and maths classes have been increased, classes of social studies, Hindi, science, and physical education have been reduced from six to five, four to three, six to five and three to two, respectively, every week. The classes of computer science and subject of choice have been decreased from four to two and three to one respectively.