Kerala education department makes orientation sessions available to all school levels

Following the announcement of special orientation classes for higher secondary students on diverse socially relevant issues at the onset of the new academic year, the general education department has organized similar sessions for students ranging from lower primary to high-school level.

The June 3 to 13 orientation programme will include topics such as road safety, body hygiene, health and physical fitness, discipline in the use of digital devices, safeguarding public property and mutual help. An hour each day will be devoted to these sessions, General Education Minister V Sivankutty informed the media here on Wednesday.

"For better recall of what children have learned in the last academic year, equivalent experiences need to be provided for them to help them transition into new textbooks after the summer break in a smooth manner. Appropriate interventions need to be made to fill up learning gaps," Sivankutty said.

Such bridging programs at the start of the academic year must also involve social values inculcation, he said.  The school learning resource groups have been instructed to develop the module for every class in a manner that it is seen as an organic learning process for students.

The Assistant Educational Officers and District Educational Officers have been instructed to organize the activity. While Block Resource Centres and district institutes of education and training will provide academic assistance, the SCERT will do the job of preparing the material.

The orientation programs will guarantee the engagement of all the students belonging to Classes II to X. In the process of developing the modules, school resource groups have been advised to make them suitable to the respective age groups of the students.

The general education department has also published a schedule detailing the subject that needs to be tackled on a specific day for every section of students. Previously, the minister had declared a six-hour-long orientation process, distributed across two weeks during the onset of the new academic year, for Plus-II students.