From Our Correspondent
TURA: Three school institutions heads whose wards have excelled in this year’s Class X SSLC examinations from the Garo Hills have spoken out on the need for drastic changes to improve the educational scenario in the five districts of Garo Hills where the pass percentage has been way below that of mainland Shillong.
The headmistress of St. Xavier’s and Aeroville secondary schools and the headmaster of Sherwood School, all from Tura, gave their take on this year’s SSLC results which saw the inclusion of thirteen students from Garo Hills making it to the state’s top twenty positions.
St. Xavier’s with three positions led the top twenty rank with Megha Manjari Mohanty and Gunsa Irma Ch Marak in the 2nd and 3rd positions followed by Ankita Bhattacharjee of Aeroville in 4th position while Sherwood bagged three others led by Dhruv Agarwal in 9th place.
Both St Xavier’s and Sherwood schools bagged three positions each but Aeroville walked off with as many as seven ranks in the state list. This has been by far the best results for Garo Hills in recent times.
But what apparently clicked has been the generous use of technology and the presence of trained teachers.
In the eyes of Sherwood school headmaster Tyrone D’Brass “exposure to latest technology can make an immense difference to the performance by a student.”
In the views of Aeroville Secondary School headmistress, S B Sangma, “the presence of qualified and trained teachers can bring about immense changes for students.”
Aeroville school which had as many as seven students included in the top twenty list believes strengthening of the junior section can pay rich dividends.
“Having trained teachers at the lower section of schools can make a big difference. The absence of such teachers is seriously hampering the education scenario in the rural areas,” revealed the headmistress of Aeroville school and suggested the need to have more trained teachers in schools across the rural areas of the State.
However, Tyrone D’Brass of Sherwood School speaks of the exposure given to students by the presence of technology at their doorstep.
“Today we no longer dwell on the chalk and talk method. Electronic devices and software are playing a major role in the grooming of students who are for the first time witnessing clear cut presentation of each subject,” reveal Sherwood School headmaster.
He was referring to the use of TechNext educational system in which subjects such as science, mathematics and even english grammer are taught step by step with colorful visual pictures in motion that has now become the latest sought after for many schools across the country and abroad.