ITANAGAR, Oct 23: A report on "Regional Plan and Status of Science Education in Schools in North East Region (NER)" was released today at NEDFi House, Guwahati by JK Sinha, Joint Secretary, Ministry of DoNER, Government of India in presence of CMD NEDFi and other officials.

The report highlights the need for improving teaching and learning of science and mathematics at the schools in the eight states of the NER. The study was carried out by NEDFi with the support of IIT Guwahati and Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai (HBCSE TIFR). The study looks at the status of science and mathematics education in the NER and suggests a Regional Plan for its improvement in the NER. As a part of the study, an assessment test in science and mathematics was administered to 5620 nos. of upper primary and secondary students from 119 schools located in 47 districts in all the states of the NER.

A benchmark exercise was also undertaken to compare the performance of the NER schools with a sample group of schools from Maharashtra by covering 542 nos. of upper primary and secondary students from 10 schools across 6 districts of the state.

The findings of the study were presented at a Regional Workshop which was attended by all stakeholders including members of RMSA, SSA, SCERT, DERT, Directorate of Secondary Education and Board of Secondary Education from all the 8 states, NEC and Assam State Technology & Environment Council (ASTEC).

To attain the Vision that "The best way of developing the North Eastern Region is through human resource development, which can be achieved by offering quality education, especially in the science and technology sector" a regional plan is formulated in the study. The report identifies the priorities on which decisions has to be taken by the State Governments for implementation of the proposed Regional Plan. The report also suggests steps for improvement of student performance in the Upper Primary and High School, improved utilisation and maintenance of existing facilities like laboratories, libraries, computers etc. and raising public awareness. Some of the proposed strategies and activities to achieve these goals are implementation of activity based teaching learning focussed on the development of concepts and real life applications through experiments and visual approaches and IT applications, evaluation of existing textbooks on parameters like availability, simplicity and attractiveness of the layout, exposure visits, ensuring the availability of science and mathematics teachers, regular evaluation of teachers training needs, tie up by state governments with IIT Guwahati/ HBCSE. It is hoped that the study would be a source of reference for stakeholders involved in implementation of schemes and policies on development of science and mathematics education in the North East.

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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