SCERT’s academic master plan for schools envisages planning at multiple levels

The academic master plan prepared by the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) to attain the goal of quality education in schools lays stress on planning at multiple levels to ensure academic growth and development of each student.

The plan envisages the school-level master plan as a framework that includes the school’s vision, academic objectives, resource utilisation, and activities. To implement the above though, class, subject-level, and individual master plans need to be prepared.

The class master plan should go into the education requirements of students in each class and the objectives of each subject and this should inform the classroom activities that teachers need to plan.

At an individual level

The individual master plan is slightly more complex for it requires teachers to understand each student’s talents, interests, and difficulties to ensure they get the academic support and motivation to enable them to do well.

Projects implemented by the General Education department at the State level, districts’ own projects, and schools’ own projects should be included in school master plans.

Learning values

In order to enhance the effectiveness of academic activities, it should be ensured that students achieve the learning outcomes and competencies for that particular grade.

Along with this, children should be provided with experiences that help them learn values such as secularism, democracy, and humaneness.

It should be ensured that children, through various activities, develop the knowledge and ability to take a position on social ills such as drugs or substance abuse and are aware of the importance of good physical and mental health; personal hygiene and clean surroundings; road safety; gender equality and health gender relationships; and environmental consciousness and waste management.

Equal opportunities

The master plan emphasises equal opportunities for students to study and grow and identify their talents and develop them.

Besides academic support, the plan calls for making sure that students make progress in core subjects. A system should be developed so that besides the mother tongue, students also hone their skills and fluency in English and Hindi.

Modern technology should be utilised for learning, including for differently abled students.

The General Education department had given directions for preparation of class master plans and individual master plans earlier too, but these were not implemented effectively. The focus on quality improvement this year has seen a renewed thrust on master plan preparation and implementation.