Gunotsav: An evaluation of Government schools

Gunin Borah

(The writer is from the Faculty of Geography,

Biswanath College, Chariali and can be reached at Email ID: borah.gunin@gmail.com)

Gunotsav is a quality improvement programme where external evaluators are deputed to the schools for conducting external evaluations of students. Gunotsav means 'the celebrating quality in schools'. It is originally a Gujarat government initiative and was adopted by the Government of Assam in the year 2017. Gunotsav was established in the year 2001 by the Government of Gujarat. It is an educational initiative which believed in making a difference in education through personalized learning and ensuring that students. To ensure quality education of students in Government schools, and to increase awareness for quality in the education community, the government carries out a gunotsav programme in schools, assessed every year since 2009 in Gujarat state. It is time for the State Government to take necessary measures in schools based on the reports of the external evaluator, both in academics and infrastructure.

The Education Department, Assam is conducting the Gunotsav-2022 programme in three phases across the state from May 11, 2022. The first phase will be from May 11, the second phase on May 22 and the third phase on June 1, 2022.

All the Government, provincialized and Tea garden management schools of elementary and secondary-level will be covered in this Gunotsav programme. All districts of Assam will be covered in three phases. Schools in each district will be distributed over three days for external evaluation.

According to officials of the Assam Sarba Siksha Abhiyan Mission, the scholastic evaluation will be for class-I to IX standards. Though the level of class-I to IX will be assessed, students from II to X will be covered. Hence students of class II will get question papers from class-I and so on for the rest of the classes. There will be both self-evaluation and external evaluation. Evaluation will be two days for each school. On the first day of evaluation, all schools will conduct a self-evaluation. The external evaluation of the respective schools as per schedule will be done on the respective date of external evaluation.

Gunotsav has been implemented to improve the quality of education and to provide guidance to teachers and schools. Gunotsav is also a way to analyse the inputs of the school management committee in school development plans, as it is envisioned that the community will take ownership of schools, which in turn will increase community participation.

In Gunotsav, 70 per cent of weightage is on educational aspects and 30 per cent on the physical infrastructure of the school, as it is important for a healthy school environment. Based on the result of the evaluation, the teachers and schools make further efforts for improvement.

Gunotsav is a quality enhancement initiative of the state for bringing about improvement in the learning levels of students at elementary levels. The assessment is done on four core areas, that is academic achievement of children of class II to class VIII, co-scholastic activities availability and utilization of school infrastructure, and other facilities, and community participation. It is time for the State Government to take initiative in the infrastructure and academic part of the school, based on the evaluation of the external evaluation report.

Gunotsav aims at evaluating schools and students to assess their performance and design strategies to bring about quality improvement in levels of learning as well as in the school environment. The exercise will indicate the gaps in learning levels of the students of classes- II to VIII. The teachers based on this assessment will provide appropriate interventions to improve the learning levels of students. A special coaching package will be designed for remedial teaching by the teachers in the school itself. The following are some of the beneficial points of Gunotsav in the government school environment.

1) Tracking the academic performance of each of the children across all the subjects throughout the elementary cycle.

2) It will indicate the learning gaps of the school child.

3) Gunotsav will help in designing and implementing remedial strategies based on the identified learning gaps.

4) Enhancing the learning of students through timely regular feedback and support and bringing about improved learning outcomes.

5) It increases the retention rate and reduces the dropout rate of the school child.

6) Generation of awareness and greater participation among all the stakeholders.

7) It will ensure better school functioning.

Gunotsav is a school evaluation process borrowed by the Assam government from Gujarat. The entire State government machinery is mobilized to evaluate the quality of school education and to grade the teachers and students of the school.

Gunotsav has informed us about the academic and infrastructure of the government school in our state. Each of the government schools is evaluated based on the assessment.

The programme will be successful if the government takes the necessary steps for remedial measures based on the report of the external evaluation. It is one of the ways, on the part of the state government, to take remedial measures for the government schools in Assam.