MY SCHOOL by Dr .Nilesh Gopal das Joshi (beginner reading books for adults .txt) 📕

and activities is to be done on the basis of the total time available. The State Department of Education fixes the school hours and the number of periods per day. Duration of each teaching period can be determined with the help of those regulations. The time for activities, games etc. also has to be set apart out of the prescribed duration. Flexibility

The departmental regulations impose restrictions on the time table. They introduce elements of uniformity and rigidity. But the timetable should be flexible enough to suit the changing needs and requirements of the pupil’s environment, season and other internal school circumstances and latest trends of education. The time table should make it possible for pupils to choose subjects or activities according to their aptitudes and interests. This is however not very easy to do. It demands unlimited facilities in respect of funds, staff and accommodation.

At the same time, the practice of framing the time table first and then fitting in the students in that rigidly laid pattern may be convenient for the department, but is educationally unsound. There should be scope for the local initiative, innovations and adjsutments when the time table is formulated.

Relative importance and difficulty of subjects

Each subject has to be provided time in the timetable according to its importance, which is determined by the social, economic and cultural considerations as well as by the future needs of the students. The relative difficulty of the subjects is also an important consideration. Important subjects must get more time. Difficult subjects should be placed when the students are fresh.

Welfare of teachers as well as students

The time table should inspire and provide for closer and proper relationship between teachers and students. The general interests of both the groups should be kept in view and accommodated.

Some period for recreation

There should be periods for recreation like play and games, physical exercises, radio listening and other activities intervening between periods of serious study. The games period should fall in between the periods of heavy strain. Similarly, a mini recess may also be provided in addition to the usual recess. It may be fixed after every two or three periods in the morning.

Sufficient place for activities; activities must find and an honorable place in the timetable Suitable duration of period

Duration of period should suit the age of the pupils. Period of thirty-five minutes in summer and forty minutes in winter for higher secondary school and thirty minutes for primary school will be quit justifiable for sustaining interest.

Coordination of efforts

The timetable should permit adequate coordination of teachers. It should give free hand for adopting modern methods of teaching.

Providing the most appropriate work for each teacher

In allotting work to teachers, care should be taken that each teacher is assigned those subjects which he is best qualified to teach. The teacher should be assigned the activities in which they have experience and interest and is not required to teach a large number of varied subjects. Teaching load should be almost evenly distributed.

Interesting programmes

Interesting programmes in the beginning and towards the end of school hours motivate children and fill them with an incentive to work enthusiastically and effectively. Similarly, during week ends also some interesting activities should be provided.

Variety

The time table should introduce variety in the day’s work to break the effect of fatigue and monotony. This can be ensured by change of subject, change of room, change of teacher, change of posture and change in the nature of activity. The difficult and easy subjects should be alternated with one another. The same teacher should not remain in the class for more than one period at a time. The venue of instruction should also be changed frequently as possible. Subjects of practical nature should alternate with subjects of difficult theoretical nature.

Change of the work is the best form of rest for both pupils and teachers. Children should not be kept for too long at a stretch at the same subject or type of subject which are high in fatigue causing power. It will be better not to have the same subject for consecutive periods, excepting, however, the practical subjects as science, handwork, art etc.

Staff, equipment and building

The time table should ensure the best utilization of the resources of the school in respect of staff, equipment and building. It should not happen that a staff member is required to teach easy subjects in the morning and difficult subjects in the afternoon. Similarly, it should not happen that a particular room is lying vacant, whereas a class is sitting outside for want of accommodation. Also it should no happen that the science laboratory is idle for the whole day excepting the last two periods when a large number of students are crowded into it and they fail to do anything significant on account of shortage of space and equipment.

Provision for best room and equipment utilization

 The number and size of classes and class rooms also affect the school timetable. In a school where two classes are held in the same room, the timetable should be drawn up in such a way that one class may do silent work and other may, at that time, be engaged in vocal work such as reading.

Avoiding incidence of fatigue

The main consideration in time table construction is the problem of fatigue among students. Fatigue is a physical matter, and its evidences are:

Weakening of attention and perception Unreadiness and inaccuracy of judgement Diminished power of insight A loss of self-control Diminishing work rate

Children are more easily fatigued than grown ups. It is for this reason that school day in their case should be shorter than in the case of college students.  of the period should be kept as short as possible. As one gets easily tired in summer than in winter, the periods in summer should be shorter than in the winter.

Certain subjects are more fatiguing than others. They involve heavier mental exertion, strain and effort. The best periods for fatiguing subjects are the second and third periods in the morning, and second period after recess.

The fatigue principle is true for the days of the week also. Tuesday and Wednesday are considered to be the best days in which maximum work could be accomplished. Monday is only the warming up day when pupils still carry the Sunday holiday feeling and on Saturday they carry the feeling to enjoy the coming holiday.

Children get fatigued at certain school hours or certain days in a week. Following are some measures that tend to minimize fatigue:        

The length of the period should decrease with the monotony and increase with the variety required in the lesson. There should be alteration of intense and of easier talks, mental and of physical application, of study and recreation, singing, marching, or games should interrupt sedentary work for about one hour, Variation to suit local condition

The hours of work and the duration of recess may be marginally adjusted to suit lical conditions. In a big school a short recess of 30 minutes may not even enable the students to drink water from the tap because of rush. The need of the particular locality should be taken into consideration while adjusting the working hour and duration of summer vacation.

A rural school may like to start its work a little late on account of long distances to be covered by the students. When students need to go to their homes for lunch in village areas, the duration of recess have to be increased. The arrival time for train may also be a consideration for a small adjustment in the opening time of the school.

Equalising class size

This consideration is necessitated when there are several divisions of the same class or when pupils are distributed into various original groups. The headmaster should see that these groups are of uniform size as far as possible.

Time for teacher’s conference

Sometimes time should be provided in the school time table for teacher’s conferences for joined planning in the interest of pupil needs.

Free periods for teachers

Free periods should be given to teachers so as to give them rest, enhance their efficiency, give them chance to refresh, enable them to attend to correction work and registration work. These free periods should be scattered all over the week. The language teachers need more free periods as they have to do a lot of correction work. The science and craft teachers, who have to make necessary preparations for practical work, should be kept free in the period immediately preceding the practical periods. On an average, a teacher should be provided two vacant periods each day.

Cooperative teaching

 Provision for and opportunity for cooperative teaching in the integrated programmers should be made available if and when teachers want it. Cooperative teaching implies that two or more teachers and their classes during the lengthened period may work together for one or several days.

Fluid and dynamic

 Time table should be fluid enough to allow variation within a broad frame whenever desired. So there should be a period of various lengths from thirty minutes to three hours, shorter period can prove useful for sectional meetings and assemblies, school recess, or even for revision lessons.

Continually revised

 Time table should never be accepted as a fact as all times. It should be examined critically in the light of particular factors operating in the school.

different Types of Timetable

A good timetable must be complete in every way. For efficient working of the school, it is desirable to have different timetables for different purposes and activities. It indicates the type of curricular and co-curricular activities being carried out in the school at a particular time and place. It may also indicate under whose supervision and guidance those activities are being carried out. But a single time table may not convey the entire information satisfactorily.

Consolidated timetable

 It is also known as general timetable or master timetable. It provides a complete picture of the entire school programme from day to day. It can be very useful to the headmaster who depends only on this timetable. This timetable is suitable for all types of supervisory responsibilities. It indicates the details of the work of individual teachers. Different sheets may be used for the days in a week, or they may be prepared in a comprehensive chart showing the programme of all the working days.

Class timetable

Every class should have its own timetable which should indicate the distribution of subjects with teachers and assignment of classrooms for each period. It is a picture of class wise programmes. It shows what a particular class or section will study in a particular period from a particular teacher at a particular place.

Teacher’s timetable

Teacher’s timetable in consolidated form is very useful, for the headmaster to carry out the supervisory duties. Every teacher may be provided with his/her own small strips containing all the subjects and classes he/she has to teach and the activities he/she has to look after. It should show the details of their academic and non-academic work.

Games timetable

It will show the allocation of time and place for games for each group or house, the games being played and the playground being utilized. For games cannot be organized based on section and classes.These are organized based on proficiency in games. Therefore, there is need and justification for timetable exclusively for games.

Co-curricular activities timetable

This will facilitate and systematize the organization of important co-curricular activities in a school. It will show the names of various activities, the names of teacher in charge, the place of meeting and duration, etc.

Homework timetable

In order to rationalize the load of homework, a timetable of these types will be very helpful. It will show the amount of homework, to be submitted by each student in his/her subject for the concerned class during a week. Thus the student will be saved from unnecessarily heavy burden of homework on certain occasions. It is also advisable to send a copy of homework time table to parents to secure their co-operation in this direction.

Vacant periods timetable

A special timetable showing the vacant periods of all the teachers may also be prepared. This is