Berhampur: To improve school education, Kandhamal district administration has rolled out “Teach Kandhamal”, an initiative under which district-level officers will visit high schools and interact with students every Monday. It was launched on a pilot basis last Monday in Raikia block, where the district-level officers, including collector, visited around 18 high schools.“From next Monday, it will be held in a regular manner, where the officers will reach out to the schools and students in particular blocks,” said Kandhamal collector Ved Bhusan on Friday. “Before the start of the joint hearing of public grievances, the officers will visit different schools of the concerned block, from 9.30 to 10.30 am on Monday. They will monitor various school activities, including morning assembly, teaching-learning session, preparation of mid-day meal, cleanliness and sanitation of the school, attendance of the students and teachers, and interact with them under the initiative,” said the collector.Bhusan further said, “The officers can teach the students, guide them about careers, apprise them of different national entrance exams during the interaction with the students. The district education officer will share details of the schools allotted to the officials in an instant messaging app prior to the day of grievance hearing.” Not only the students, but the teachers will also be motivated by this initiative and try to improve the educational activities in the school. The main objective of the initiative is qualitative improvement in matric results in the district, the collector added.Rajesh Swain, district education officer, said in the last annual HSC exam, the pass percentage in the district was 98.17 and stood third in the state. “Though the district has improved quantitatively, it is still lagging behind in qualitative results. We hope this initiative will help to improve the qualitative results in the HSC exam in future and to solve the basic problems of the schools,” he said. As there are 15 to 25 high schools in each block in the district, there would be no shortage of district-level officers to visit the schools, he added.
