The School Education Department has proposed to conduct short quizzes for students of classes 3 to 5 in government and aided schools, in a bid to address learning outcomes.
Over the past year, while schools remained shut, lessons were telecast on Kalvi TV and resource material prepared and sent to students to ensure that learning continued.
The State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) has prepared short quizzes which the Department has said can be sent to the heads of government and aided schools through the chief and district educational officers. These quizzes will be sent to students on WhatsApp, and teachers are being encouraged to have further discussions with students and clear any doubts they may have.
For senior students, the Department has already been conducting basic quizzes every Saturday in government schools through the hi-tech labs on campus since mid-September.
Some tweaks
Some teachers, however, have asked for a few aspects of these quizzes to be tweaked so that they could be more effective and benefit the students more. “At present, students of classes 9 to 12 are taking up these quizzes. A schedule could be provided, detailing the lessons they would be tested on every week. They are now answering multiple-choice questions in all subjects,” said Patric Raymond, Secretary, Tamil Nadu Graduate Teachers’ Federation. He said the quizzes could have more questions from their syllabus, as currently, they tackle several topics which do not feature in the syllabus.
“Since the quiz is taken online, we have also asked for a larger font size in some papers as well as diagrams and charts in Tamil for students from the Tamil medium stream,” he said, adding that the Education Department had said the concerns would be addressed.
Schools reopened for classes 9 to 12 on September 1, and government and aided schools have been conducting refresher courses for those students, largely featuring concepts from their previous class since schools remained shut for much of the previous academic year.
