To:

Director

Eklavya( HSTP)

Kind Attention: Ms. Anjali Noronha, Kamal Mahendroo

 

Reference: Your letter addressed to the Chief Minister dated 10 July

 

The issues that you have raised in the above-mentioned letter have been considered by the Government. Response to the issues raised is given below.

  1. Issue : Potential to Work at State-level
  2. The Government after due consideration has decided that collaboration with Eklavya should from now on be expanded to a higher scale to that of assisting the State Council of Educational Research and Training to train teachers in science education and for development of resource support materials and such other initiatives that will help improve the quality of education in the state. This decision will give Eklavya an opportunity to contribute to the mainstream such practices that are found useful from the 30 Year old experience of Eklavya through HSTP. In Government’s assessment this offers Eklavya an opportunity that it has itself been seeking.

  3. Issue: Running of the HSTP
  4. The Government has decided to continue those elements that would add value like Sawaliram, Chakmak, pedagogic practices that enrich teaching of Science and the experience of the Sangam Kendras under HSTP to strengthen the Jan Shiksha Kendras which are being set up across the state. The Government has decided that there will be no parallel sets of textbooks or evaluation methods that will operate in government schools since government is accountable for improving the quality of education and learning outcomes of children in Government Schools.

  5. Issue : Future Directions for Eklavya’s Partnership

The partnership would be nurtured at the state-level. Eklavya would be required to give a comprehensive proposal to the SCERT identifying its strengths, details of human resources it can commit and suggest a programme that fits the parameters in Section 1. The Government will be happy to support a proposal that meets the government’s objective of improving the quality of education.

The points relating to improving the content of social science teaching programme and improving quality of education raised in point 4 and 5 of your note are answered in the scope extended to your organization. We concur with you on the importance of developing secular progressive and academically sound curricular programme for teaching of social science in schools and improving quality of school education and we reiterate our suggestion to you to consider collaborating with the state government in such a process. We are confident of a positive response from you as this, in our view, was the original vision of the HSTP also.

Yours Sincerely,

 

Amita Sharma

Secretary, Elementary Education