Govt to Bring 8th Std Under Primary, Merge PU with Secondary School
Daijiworld Media Network – Bangalore (SP)
Bangalore, Dec 17: State primary and secondary education minister, Vishweshara Hegde Kageri, informed the legislative council on Friday December 16, that the government will bring eighth standard under the primary schools, and merge ninth to PUC second year classes under secondary schools.
This will help the government to avail of additional grants from the central government under National Secondary Education Policy and implement the Right to Education Act in an effective manner, he said. The minister was replying to questions raised by BJP member, Srinath, during the question hour.
“The government will be setting up two committees, one for private schools, and the other for government schools, duly asking them to submit time-bound recommendations on the implementation of the above plan. The government will act further, based on the suggestions made in the report,” he explained.
He informed that the state government is under pressure from the central government to make these changes at the earliest, as many other states have already fallen in line with the education policy. “Once the policy become effective, we will have to abide by the rules of the central government, as per which, first to fifth standard will be known as lower primary classes, sixth to eighth higher primary, and ninth to 12th as secondary education,” he stated.
He revealed that the government is availing of the services of teachers on contract at several pockets as a stop-gap arrangement in place of existing vacancies of teachers, and added that 1,824 posts of teachers will be filled during the next year, as permitted by the finance department. The minister said that the government has adopted Prof Vidyanathan Committee report on bringing reforms in physical education. He also revealed that recruitment rules will be modified accordingly in respect of appointment of physical education officials and teachers to give effect to the amendments proposed during meeting held with various departments, once the committee headed by the additional chief secretary which is examining these proposals, finalizes them.