All government school students, mainly those in Board classes, are getting the ‘morning wake up calls’ from their teachers in the government schools of Punjab and the main purpose is to get students studying early morning.
Dilpreet Singh’s phone rings sharp at 5 am without fail these days. On the other end every morning is the Class 10 student’s teacher, telling the 15-year-old to get up and start studying for the Board exams that are set to begin soon. The calls usually end with the teacher telling him to call back in case he has doubt in any subject.
For the past few days his mathematics teacher, Charanpreet Singh, has been calling Dilpreet, a student of government senior secondary school in Batala. But he is not the only one getting such calls. Another Class 10 student Amanpreet Kaur too has been getting the 5 am call from her teacher Amarinder Singh.
Amanpreet, a student of government high school in Sri Hargobindpur in Gurdaspur, said: “Our teachers have been working very hard on ever since the pandemic began. Now, they even call us in the morning and re-check whether we are studying or sleeping.”
English subject mentor for Jalandhar district, Chander Shekhar, said that he wakes up at around 4.30 am and starts calling up his students to wake them up and ask them to give him a call back if they need any help while studying.
He added: “It is our duty to develop this early morning studying habit among our students ahead of the Board exams because students mostly studied online this academic session. Now, we do not want that a little laxity causes a negative impact on the percentage of the students.”
All government school students, mainly those in Board classes, are getting the ‘morning wake up calls’ from their teachers in the government schools of Punjab and the main purpose is to get students studying early morning.
According to state officials, the morning wake up calls are being made by school heads, teachers and mentors voluntarily.
“There are no departmental instructions for the same,” said Amarjit Khatkar, Principal, government senior secondary school, Mukandpur.
The practice was started by the teachers following a meeting with the Education Secretary recently.
These “wake up calls” to students and parents are for motivating them for Board examinations, have been started under “Mission Shat Pratishat”.
State Education Department said that it has just been playing a role of “catalyst” and motivating officials and teachers to emulate this “good practice” shared in the motivational meetings. The Department has not issued any official orders in this regard.
Mission Shat Pratishat was kickstarted by the CM and that’s why it had assumed much significance, said Disatrict Education Officer (Secondary Education) Jagjit Singh .
“The Mission is not just wishful thinking but a well thought out strategy planned by the department to raise the academic standards of the government schools as well as make them centres of academic excellence,” the DEO added.
Vijay Kumar, principal, government senior secondary school, Malewal further elaborated that government school teachers had been braving all odds be it Covid or the extreme cold weather and resorting to the innovative techniques to make sure that students don’t suffer in the pandemic year.
Kavita Sabharwal, a teacher of English at government senior secondary school for boys, Rahon, said that the teachers had also voluntarily been taking extra-classes both physical and virtual as per the requirements to achieve the Mission Shat Pratishat.”
“The Education Department has mobilised the school heads to prepare a database on the basis of the performance of the students in the house examinations so that a micro-planning for the weak, average and meritorious students could be prepared. Simplified study materials, question banks, model question papers for the students and requisite material for meritorious students have been prepared and are being uploaded on Punjab Educare App. The study material is also being provided to the students through a well knit vast network of district and block-level mentors. The teachers at grassroots level have been exhibiting exemplary commendable zeal and enthusiasm to get these innovative practices implemented at the cutting edge levels,” said DEO Jagjit Singh.
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