Student Crisis in Government School: Solution

Nowadays a serious issue relating to the crisis of students in the government school of Odisha is in limelight. In current time maximum schools have the total number of students below 200 from class five to six in high school and from class one to five in primary school too. In a report from the Indian Express, 196 schools were shut down by the government which has only 5 students. In the last two year, the government has shut down 828 schools due to very less number of students. On the other hand, the Vidya Bharati backed Saraswati Sishu Mandira, Vivekananda school, other CBSE pattern followed private schools are in high demands among parents. Looking these matter the state government has merged various schools. It is predicting that a day will come to the government the school will completely disappear from the scenario of Odisha education system. This serious issue should be concerned by the government through the government will take some step to resolve this issue, we have to be a direct and indirect part in correcting and saving the institutions. Here I have given an overview relating to, arise of such problems and also I have provided a number of solutions for saving the institution.

[a]. Government School Teachers and Seriousness for Teaching.

In a government school, there is no such rule and active body to watch or guard the teachers in teaching. There should be a supervisor trend like a private school. A supervisor among the teacher should be selected by the headmaster. Class VI and VII have one supervisor and similarly another for class VIII to X. Faculties will report their weekly examination report to supervisor and the supervisor will give some marks like a ‘good’, ‘better’ and ‘excellent’ as teaching grade to the teacher. Such a grade will be discussed with the headmaster in a meeting every week.
In a private school, the salary of a teacher depends on the performance of the student, whereas in government school it does not affect the teacher in a single way. The reputation of private school increases with its result, but government school teachers have no care and no weakness towards the reputation of government institutes. There should be a patriot and true feelings of teaching in the teachers of a government school. Getting a high salary and coming to school late and going before 4 O'clock is a bad gesture and which will lead to the degradation of education. The founder headmaster of Alanahat high school Shri Baikunthanath Acharya comes to school early in the morning and leaves at night around 9.00 PM. It was his dedication and passion for teaching. So teachers should be like this. In private school, if a teacher comes after 5 minutes of school time, he/she says sorry and gives his/her explanations about the delay, whereas such systems are not in a government school. In private school teacher comes after the class hour to school for clearing the doubt of the student and which is compulsory for all. In the case of a government school, there are no such systems.
The private school organizes a parent-teacher meeting every week. Such a meeting is very important and urgent for discussing the issues related to the studies of students with their parents. It will also create a healthy environment for education where a parent will be a part of the system and the teacher will be serious enough with the direct involvement of parents in every week. Such systems are far away from a government school. This should be imposed in a government school.
The classroom study should be practical and influential to all students not to only the front bench students. The teacher should focus on each and every student in the class. Teachers should try their best to educate and teach the backbenchers to secure good marks.
There should be assigned activities every day. The teacher should give the assignment of that day and should collect it the next day.
The teacher should give extra effort on English learning because it is an official language. For this reason, there should be proper English class including basic translations and tense study from the beginning. The school library should be functional and allow students to read daily there during recess. There should be qualitative English magazines, current affairs, and daily newspapers.
For the 10th student, the headmaster will appoint one teacher as a guide for a group of 5 students. The teacher will completely look after the students and will report to the headmaster regarding each and every problem of a single student. The teacher will help the student in studying and revising the subject.

[B] State level and National Level competitions.

The headmaster should be visionary and should give scope and allow the students to participate in different state level and national level programs. Debate competition, science exhibition, essay competition, etc. are to be focused. Here a question arises every time some front-line students participates in these activities because they were talented and their family members are well educated to deal with all situations. In this case, the other students feel inferior and do not try to come to the front line. In such cases, the school applies a policy of selecting students.

Some parents are unable to send their students to distance due to financial problem. In such cases, the school has some funding source to provide the students with their outside expenditures.

The school should take proactive measurements in sending our students in science exhibitions, science festivals and also once a month scientific discussion among all students in school.

[C]. Extracurricular Activity.

Extracurricular activities like sports, dance, drama, music should be emphasized. Our students should be promoted in various programs. The sports part should be highly focused. The sports equipment should be available to students. The sports teacher will be responsible and will do his/her best to send a student in national level competitions. Not only cricket but also many Olympics games should be focused on.

[D]. Infrastructure.

Healthy study environment can be possible with better infrastructure. Our science lab should be functional. Science teacher should remain in positive and scientific discussions with the students and his main aim should be to create more enthusiasm among the mind of students towards the recent development in the world.
School library is must be well developed and well established with good valuable books. The teacher should influence the student for reading more and more except for the book.
The school needs to develop a new teaching process by using videos and photos through the projector. It will create an impact in the mind of the student and he will get deeply in attach with the subject.

[E] Interaction with Alumni

The school needs to regulate interaction programs of established alumni twice in six months with students. They will inspire the student and will suggest them to building a great future.

Finally, we can’t blame private school for the closing of the government school directly, because their hard work, syllabus structure, and extra dimension are helping students in future, what I have realized throughout my study career and also closely I have seen CBSE board students, their study pattern and the syllabus level are far different from us. Here I concluded some suggestions what I have realized personally.

Trupti Ranjan Das

Senior Research Fellow

Functional Nanomaterial Research laboratory

Department of Applied Physics