-Dipta Joshi

The Pune Zilla Parishad (ZP) will initiate continuous assessments of special schools within the district. The department will collect information and assess special schools on 90 different parameters. Pune (including urban and rural areas) has 77 government-aided special schools in the district which cater to over 4173 students.

“The social welfare department (disability section) with the help of the primary education department has undertaken several initiatives to improve the quality of education amongst schools in the district. There are too many aspects to be looked into for the efficient running of special schools since many of them are residential schools too. We thought it would be a good idea to involve some of our education department officers and centre heads to keep a regular check on the working of these schools. The continuous assessment will ensure there is no compromise with what our special students learn and avail at the school,” says Pravin Korgantiwar, district social welfare officer, Pune district.

The assessment which will focus on teaching quality, student amenities, record keeping and existing infrastructure amongst other things will be conducted by education officers thrice a year-  August, December-January, and February-March.

An official letter (dated 18 August) to the effect was released by Ayush Prasad, CEO, Pune Zilla Parishad. Speaking to the press, Prasad informed that schools will be notified of their drawbacks and will be expected to initiate improvements before the next assessment. The department will take action against schools that do not follow up on recommendations by the assessing officers.

The Pune ZP has been a frontrunner in introducing schemes to improve the quality of education. Earlier this month, it initiated a pilot assessment programme for all regular schools within the district. The programme aims to assess and accredit 3639 ZP schools, 916 government-aided and 2000 private schools using similar assessment parameters as the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) was announced on April 2. 2022.

Under the assessment programme, schools will be given accreditation based on several parameters including the school’s infrastructural facilities, learning and teaching quality, assessment and evaluation process, teacher training programmes, involvement in society and leadership and management. A total of 500 points will be allotted to the assessment parameters and schools will be judged on the basis of the percentage they score.     

Schools will be given annual improvement targets to be achieved by March 31 and an extra grace period of three months beyond which the ZP office would propose cancellation of the school’s affiliation.