Tripura government has introduced an innovative sponsor programme for the students studying in Class IX to provide them extra coaching on mathematics and science beyond school hours for encouraging them in pursuing basic science in higher studies.
The education minister Ratan Lal Nath on October 29 said that only 11 percent Madhyamik pass out students of Tripura opted science stream in higher secondary in past three years despite having the best infrastructure in the schools. The drastic drop of admission in the science stream was believed because of the fall of future scope in technical education in the country.
“The common perception of our guardians is to admit their wards in science stream at Class XI for making them either an engineer or a doctor. With the demand for specialization in both engineering and medical, the competition of admission into the courses has become very tough and scope of employment for the simple engineering or medical graduate is very limited. As a result, the students might not be getting admitted to science besides, the reason of fear of math and science,” Nath said.
However, studying science is not only to become engineer and doctor, but also there has been a huge scope of a bright career in general science and premier institutions of the country as well as the central government offered various course linked with future career but most of the people do not know it, Nath pointed out.
“As a government, it’s our duty to disseminate the information among the students and guardians that to guide them in pursuing science subjects. We have chosen Class IX for providing extra coaching to the students identifying a benchmark based on the registration of students applied for the National Talent Search Exam (NTSE),” Nath added.
The council of the minister has decided to pay Rs 500 per month for each of the student at least for 15 months and the teachers of the respective schools to be selected by the students and guardians for the extra class. The teachers would be paid Rs 500 per hour extra maximum of four hours every week and they would undertake coaching after school hour.
The government has earmarked Rs 2.19 crore annually for implementing the project targeting about 5,000 students to be enrolled for NTSE. The minister said in last year over 32,000 students had got admitted in Class XI and only 3,600 students opted science stream, which reflected a dismal face of education in the state.
He indicated that the state government had been taken multiple steps to stop private tuition but it is not yet cent per cent successful in Tripura and added, “In most of the cases, private tuition becomes a fashion and guardians feel without private classes beyond school hours students cannot do better result but it is not true. However, to discourage private tuition that affects the teacher’s performance in the classes we have devised the model”.
