Gunotsav to help identify learning gaps due to pandemic: Dr. Ranoj Pegu

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: Gunotsav 2022 – the educational exercise to evaluate students across all government schools– will be launched in the State in three phases from May 11, 2022.

Addressing a press conference on Monday in the office of the Axom Sarba Siksha Abhiyan in Guwahati, State Education Minister Dr Ranoj Pegu said that the first phase of Gunotsav will be held from May 11 to May 14, second phase from May 23 to May 26 and the third phase from June 1 to June 4. Dr Pegu said, "The objective of Gunotsav is to identify learning gaps, to ensure learning enhancement and achievement of learning outcomes by all children at the primary level, to assess the performance of schools in areas like curricular, co-curricular, availability and utilization of infrastructure, to indicate learning gaps and to design effective strategies to meet up these gaps, to ensure greater participation of all stakeholders starting from teachers, students, administrators, communities and enhance accountability among them for quality education, and to support the school and education system so as to improve the quality of education and ensure better functioning of schools.

"This year Gunotsav has special importance. Due to the pandemic and the closure of educational institutions, students suffered academically. This edition of Gunotsav will help to identify the learning gaps. Steps have been taken to bridge these learning gaps. Gunotsav will help to gauge the success of these steps and plan further remedial action."

During Gunotsav, scholastic evaluation will be done of students from Class I to Class IX. However, as the new academic session started in April, students will be given question papers pertaining to one class lower. Students newly promoted will be given questions papers meant for the previous class. During Gunotsav 2022, total 4,25,224 students in 46,000 government schools will be evaluated. A total of 18,752 External Evaluators (EEs) have been appointed for the ensuing edition of Gunotsav.

Gunotsav 2022 will be launched by Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. The entire government machinery, including the Chief Minister, ministers, MLAs, Chief Secretary to the Government of Assam, senior IAS, IPS and IFS officers, class I and II officers of the State will visit schools as External Evaluators for evaluation of the performance of children and schools.

Dr Pegu said, "As part of the Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) under the RTE Act, no student up to Class VIII can be detained or failed. All students up to Class VIII are automatically promoted to the next class. But if a student is promoted to a higher class despite lagging academically, he must be given additional classes to help him cope with the new syllabus. Such learning gaps will be focussed upon during Gunotsav."

The Education Minister said that Assam's education sector had made significant progress. "As per the Performance Grading Index (PGI), Assam scored 836.6 out of 1000. Our performance has improved from level 6 last year to level 4 and from grade III to grade I respectively," he added. The minister expressed optimism that Gunotsav would help to upgrade the quality of education in government schools. The Performance Grading Index (PGI) is a tool to provide insights on the status of school education in States and UTs, including key levers that drive their performance and critical areas for improvement.

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