A Parents Teachers Association (PTA) Day was organised across 677 government schools of Koderma district in Jharkhand. PTA is an initiative of the Department of School Education and Literacy, Jharkhand. It is expected that such ownership of schools by the community will not only help in the holistic development of schools but will also ensure the sustainability of initiatives taken by the Education Department of Jharkhand.
Shri Gholap Ramesh Gorakh (IAS), the Deputy Commissioner (DC) of the district, had also released a video appealing to parents, teachers and department officials to make the event a success. He had invited public representatives to take part in the event and interact with parents.
In order to make sure that schools celebrate this day no less than any festival; schools took several initiatives like awareness campaign in villages, door to door visits, students sending invitation cards to their parents, the meeting of SMC members in schools and orientation of Mukhiya at the cluster level. The efforts made by the district administration and schools seem to have paid well. In one of the schools – Model Vidyalaya, Markacho, 715 parents participated on the occasion of PTA day.
Parents were made aware about the gaps in students’ learning outcomes, drawbacks of irregularity in schools, remedial classes for improving the learning level of students, school certification program and other such initiatives which have been operating in schools.
Both teachers and parents took a pledge to improve the learning outcome of students in the upcoming three months. The latter also made sure that they would send their children to school regularly.
Parents seemed satisfied returning from the program. Renu Devi, one of the parents who attended the meeting suggested “such programs should take place more often as it offers an opportunity to bridge the learning gap of students.”