PANJIM: All Goa Secondary School Teachers Association (AGSSTA) President Savio Suraj Victoria, along with executive committee members, met the Director of SCERT Meghana Shetgaonkar and explained to her that there is no need to change the existing timings of the schools because the NCF (National Curriculum Framework) has proposed 34 working weeks with 180 days of instruction for the year of around 29 hours of instruction every week.
“This amounts to 986 hours of instruction for the year. The present hours of work in Goa is 33 hours per week with five and half hours of instruction per day with 200 days of instruction for the year with 37 working weeks for the year. This amounts to 1,221 hours of working time, which is more than the 986 hours of instruction proposed by NCF and the 1,050 hours of instruction proposed by the Goa NEP Committee,” the AGSSTA stated.
The AGSSTA argued that implementation of NEP can be done without increasing the existing timings of the school since the NCF suggests reduction of the school hours and reduction of the content to reduce the burden on the students.
It will also give students to choose the activities of their choice after the school hours, as envisaged in the NCF, the association said.
Former AGSSTA President and legal advisor Dattatray Naik pointed out that a teacher works for more than the minimum 45 hours of work per week (more than seven and half hours per week) as stipulated by the RTE Act 2009.
“Every day a teacher does more than three and half hours of instructional work as stipulated by Goa School Education Act, 1986. He or she works for more than two hours for supervised studies, remedial teaching, correction of classroom work and home work of pupils, correction of composition note books, science journals etc every day. He or she is also spending more than two hours every day for preparation of the lessons using their own devices,” he said.
The AGSSTA in its memorandum brought to the notice of the Director of SCERT that the hours of work that the teacher spends for the co-curricular activities such as training/organising/accompanying the students for various competitions, programmes, social gatherings, annual days, national days, field trips, excursions, educational tours, school complex activities, supervision of mid-day meals etc. beyond the school hours which is not counted, while calculating the work load of the teachers, nor are they paid anything extra for it.
“On the contrary sometimes they have to spend from their own pockets. Besides this, the teacher also has to devote at least 50 hours every year for Continuous Professional Development (CPD) through DIKSHA portal and mobile app using their own devices,” it said.
