In possibly the first of its kind exercise initiated for the overall uplift of the quality of education in the state, besides the ‘Gunotsav’ drive, all government officers above Class I rank are being roped in to revisit the schools where they have studied, to do an impromptu check and motivate the students.

The state Education Department has floated a new scheme involving IAS officers who will now adopt secondary schools from across the state that have a pass percentage below 30.

Around 1,500 secondary schools have registered a pass percentage between 0 to 30, as per the 2009 Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSHSEB) results.

The school adoption scheme has been operational for a month now and at least 30 IAS officers have already adopted a school each. The scheme, which took off as a pilot project, is being extended to IAS officers only, and will be later extended to all officers above Class I level.

The IAS officers will teach the students, check for reasons behind their poor performance and involve their families whenever possible, in the exercise. The tasks include forming school specific guidelines, arranging for proper teaching infrastructure and motivating the students and teachers to perform better.

State Education Secretary Hasmukh Adhia, who has adopted one such school, said: “We are accepting that something is wrong and we have to find out the root cause. The idea behind top officials adopting schools is that they can pay personalised attention to schools right from organising for textbooks, school uniforms and computers where there are none, to paying personal attention to each student. In fact, officials can support and upgrade schools using resources they can generate by themselves as well.”