The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has pulled up the Education department for poor learning outcome of students asking it to strengthen the Cluster Resource Centres (CRCs)."The learning outcomes in schools at primary level are poor and strengthening of CRCs will help to provide on-site support to the school teachers," an official told wire service—Kashmir News Observer (KNO), quoting MHRD officials having said.The official said the MHRD has directed the department to ensure the CRCs provide regular support to school and teachers."The school education department was censured for poor performance of students in previous National Achieve Survey (NAS) conducted by NCERT," the official told KNO.The official said that CRCs are the “most critical” units for training and on-site support to schools and teachers.“The CRCs need to undertake regular visits and organise monthly meetings to discuss academic issues and design strategies for better school performance,” official said.The resource persons deputed in CRCs have been asked to take up periodic inspection and supervision of schools to observe the infrastructure and facilities and the administrative aspects.
“A proper system of academic and curricular support should be developed to serve the purpose of continuous professional up gradation of teachers,” the official said.The official said the directions were issued to the department that cluster resource coordinators should visit the schools and provide onsite academic support once in two months.“The reports should be sent to the department and later submitted to MHRD for final certification,” the official told KNO.An official who is dealing with the subject said the Cluster Resource Centres were established as a component under SSA scheme and trained teachers were appointed as resource persons and directed to visit schools for providing academic assistance to the school teachers."But here the resource persons don't visit schools and instead get posted in offices," the official said.Earlier, the school education department had directed all the resource persons to visit schools on weekly basis and maintain their tour dairy and submit to the administrative department.Meanwhile, the official said MHRD has issued fresh directions and asked the department to engage the resource persons for giving training to management committee of schools. (KNO)