Education system must be revamped: Soopy

By Our Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, JUNE 28. The Minister for Education, Mr. Nalakath Soopy, has stressed the need for restructuring the education system in the State to give it a new sense of direction.

Right from the elementary to the doctoral level, the system called for a thorough overhaul, he observed while inaugurating a discussion on `Curriculum Revision - the need for it and anxiety over it', organised here today by the Muslim Students' Federation (MSF).

A high power committee would soon be constituted for suggesting reforms, the Minister said. The Government had an open mind on reforms in the education sector that were to be brought about in the days to come. The opinions of all concerned would be taken into consideration before such plans were drawn up. There was absolutely no room for concern over the reforms in the education sector, he said.

Referring to the issue of the change in textbooks in the eighth standard, in a deviation from the syllabi followed till last year under the revised curriculum, better known as the District Primary Education Programme (DPEP), the Minister said it was not a political decision. What prompted such a step was the search for a better evaluation system than the one that was being followed under the DPEP, he added.

The grading system was suitable till the upper primary level. However, from classes eight to ten, the performance of a student needed a better form of evaluation, perhaps the system of awarding marks rather than grades. This has been a long-felt need of most parents who naturally had an element of anxiety over their wards' future, he maintained.

Moreover, the evaluation followed under the DPEP did not conform to the State Council for Educational Research and Training (SCERT) norms and there was no transparency in the whole process and hence the need for a change, Mr. Soopy said.

A commission headed by the eminent academic, Dr. A. Sukumaran Nair, has been appointed to report on how best the gap in the content and style between the old and new text books of the eighth standard could be filled. The commission has been asked to submit its report within three months, the Minister said, seeking to remove the apprehensions caused in this regard.

Welcoming the concept of the DPEP, Mr. E.T. Mohammed Basheer, MLA, and a former Minister for education, said that though there was no flaw in the system the manner in which it was implemented left much to be desired. The LDF Government had to take the blame for the programme going off the track. One area that was neglected was the training for teachers in the non-DPEP districts, he pointed out. There was also the need to remove the fears in the minds of the parents by making the evaluation process transparent and more effective, he suggested.

The activity-based and child-centred approach of the DPEP was a welcome change, but a little more academic element had to be infused into its curriculum, suggested Dr. K. Sivadasan Pillai. A more scientific and comprehensive study would be needed before deciding to proceed any further with the programme, he said.

``In principle I am for DPEP and in practice, I am more for it,'' said Prof. B. Hridayakumari, highlighting the research element in the curriculum right from class one. She wanted the teacher-student ratio in the DPEP classes to be brought down so as to enable the teacher to pay more attention to the students. The impression that DPEP was all fun and frolic had to be removed, she said.

Mr. M.P.A. Rahim presided over the session.

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