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Education

Civic school students back in classroom after 40 days

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The Times of India      22.11.2013

Civic school students back in classroom after 40 days

KAUSA: Over 6,200 Thane Municipal Corporation-run (TMC) students are a happy lot as they will get their classrooms back after a span of 40 days. These students were forced to stay home much prior to Diwali vacation, as their school building in Kausa, housing nine schools, was declared dangerous. All these students had to skip their half yearly exams.

All these students will attend regular classes at a new location from Thursday onwards. Students were relieved with this news, but were tensed about their exams as well. Finally, after 40 days, the TMC's education department has arranged for an alternative place, which is an under-construction civic school and stadium at Shimla Park, Kausa.

The new building is designed to accommodate all nine schools, as a replacement of the old and dilapidated ones which was shut on October 12. The half-yearly exam, which was called off, will be now held from November 25. "We are not well-versed with the chapters that were to be covered during the lapse period. Now, exams are on our head and I am scared how to write the papers," said Anish Shaik, a student.

"In the meantime, we were in quest of finding suitable places to shift the students and have finally zeroed in on our new school compound and nearby stadium. As many as 20 class rooms have been spruced up at both places to run two batches. The new question papers are set to conduct the exams from Monday," said Dr Ganpat More, TMC education officer. As many as 12 classrooms have been created at the under-construction school and eight more at the stadium premises.

"We will continue the classes at these two places till the end of this academic year, by that time our new building should be ready. With the reopening to schools after summer vacation we will shift the students to our full-fledged set up," said More, adding that extra coaching has been arranged for students from Thursday to Sunday to complete the remaining portions in a run up to the exams.

 

AMC set to open five new English-medium schools

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The Indian Express             19.11.2013

AMC set to open five new English-medium schools

Aiming at providing "affordable" options of English-medium schools to middle class and lower middle class sections, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) school board has planned to add five more English-medium public schools - Ahmedabad Public Schools (APS) - to the existing one at city's Shahpur area, that was inaugurated in May this year.

The areas, where these schools would come up in the coming academic session (that will begin from June 2014), include Dariapur, Gomtipur, Pritampura, Isanpur and Ramapir nu tekra. While the selection of these areas has been done on the basis of a survey, carried out by the board to gauge the demand and possible number of students who would enroll in these schools, the target certainly is the middle class, even slums.

These schools will open in five different zones of Ahmedabad, leaving only the New West zone that is not expected to get one. The school board is also contemplating to rope in non-government organisations and educational societies that could provide support and guidance in setting up these schools.

Apart from providing English-medium municipal schools to residents who cannot afford private schools, the reasons cited by the AMC school board include meeting the demand raised by parents. These new schools would be on the lines of the Shahpur APS; KG I , KG II and Class I. At present, there are nearly 150 students at Shahpur APS, the first English-medium municipal public school.

"Irrespective of community or economic status, the preference for English-medium schools among society has witnessed an increase every year. The AMC school board thought why not start government schools in English medium that do not have issues of exorbitant fee, donations and other additional expenses. Also, the response to APS in Shahpur has been encouraging," said the AMC School Board Chairman Jagdish Bhavsar.

The survey carried out by the board revealed that despite the increasing number of English-medium private schools in the city, they were not running out of students.

Some of the areas covered in the survey included Girdharnagar and Saraspur that have middle and lower middle class population and have witnessed an increase in private schools.

Among the five areas shortlisted for English-medium government schools, the survey revealed, the demand was the highest from Gomtipur. "The residents of Gomtipur have been demanding an English- medium school since last year. The survey has estimated that the school will get over 50 students at the entry level, KG I," said AMC School Board Administrative Officer L D Desai.

The school board is planning to use the existing infrastructure for new schools. For this, the existing school buildings would be used for new schools as rooms are available during morning shifts, similar to the arrangement done in Shahpur. The AMC school board is running 456 municipal schools across Ahmedabad, but the majority of these schools are Gujarati-medium.

 

BBMP's special classes for SSLC students

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The New Indian Express            13.11.2013

BBMP's special classes for SSLC students

The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is planning to conduct special coaching classes for academically weak SSLC students at its schools.

The BBMP runs 38 high schools. SSLC exam results in BBMP schools have improved in the past three years. However, to improve the results further, the civic body has taken up this initiative.

Speaking to Express, A Kodanda Reddy, Standing Committee Chairman for Education, said they are planning on subject-wise coaching.

“I have told our high school teachers to prepare a list of students and the subjects in which they need special attention. Such students will be given special coaching by teachers after or before school hours,” he said.

This will build students’ confidence and improve results in BBMP schools, he hoped.

Reddy said he would personally instruct headmasters of all BBMP schools on the training module.

 


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