In rating, Goa schools fare poorly

In rating, Goa schools fare poorly
Preetu Nair, TNN

PANAJI: This is one report card that may not impress many. No one has achieved an A+ grade, very few made an A, while a majority attained B,
which means that the performance of those ranked is neither excellent nor good, but just satisfactory.

The grades awarded by Bharatiya Jain Sanghatana — Educational Quality Improvement Programme (BJS-EDUQIP), an NGO, for the Goa education department with an aim to improve the quality of education may be cause of concern to parents and educationists alike. The grading is also meant to help the department identify the strong and weak points of each school.

Only nine of the 307 high and higher secondary schools graded in the state got an A, while in the primary and middle sections just 28 made the mark. Goa has 1,266 primary schools, 71 middle schools, 374 high school and 79 higher secondary schools. However, about 243 schools governed by the Archdiocesan Board of Education didn’t participate in the grading system.

“The accreditation programme was designed and developed by including six main parameters — management/governance, infrastructure, administration, teachers, students and academics, besides 253 other parameters,” said BJS-EDUQIP manager Suhas Thakurdesai.

Education director Dr Celsa Pinto said, “We entered into a MoU with BJS-EDUQIP not just to detect the problem but to improve the situation in order to ensure that Goa has the country’s best education system within the next few years.”

20 Feb 2009, The Times of India, Goa edition