Punjab Chief Minister Mr. Parkash Singh Badal today called for a “revolutionary” upgradation of the school education in the state to facilitate the poorest of poor but brilliant rural students, for having access to the quality education.Presiding over a high level meeting of the Vice Chancellors of the Universities, Principals of the prestigious Government Model Senior Secondary Schools of UT Chandigarh and other educational experts of the state, the Chief Minister asked them to play a pro-active role in complete transformation of school education in the state. “We just can’t afford to let our poor meritorious students to suffer due to lack of infrastructure and proper counseling. The poor meritorious students thus deserve special attention for shaping their destiny”.
Laying thrust on the need for providing quality education to the poor students securing more than 80% of marks at metric level at Government schools in rural areas, the Chief Minister said that the universities must evolve a mechanism through which these bright students could be groomed from 10 plus one and two classes by imparting the quality education in professional courses. He said that the Universities must initiate the program under ‘University Colleges of Professional Studies for Rural students’ under which they must develop a centre/ school in the major cities under their jurisdiction where the students could be delivered quality education free cost along with boarding and lodging facilities. Mr. Badal said that this would not only help in providing better employment facilities to students but would also go a long way in exploring the vast untapped potential of the brilliants students in the rural areas of the state.
Unfolding his dream project to ensure congenial atmosphere to the meritorious poor students of rural areas securing above 80% marks, the Chief Minister asked the Principal Secretary School Education to depute the state’s Chief Architect to visit the premises of local Sector 16 Government Model Senior Secondary School before finalizing the building lay out plan. Mr. Badal desired that these upcoming School buildings with hostel facilities should be double storeyed. Chairman PSEB apprised the Chief Minister that nearly 3200 such brilliant students had been identified by them who have secured more than 80% marks in matriculation while studying in the rural schools during the academic year 2012-13.
Keeping in view the tremendous potential of the rural school children, majority of whom had been bereft of the basic infrastructure and quality education, would now be given level playing field to compete with their counterparts in convent and private schools. This concept, Mr. Badal said would also ensure far better results due to the factor of homogeneity as all the students admitted in such schools must possess 80% marks as a ‘benchmark’. He asked the Education department to prepare an action plan to set up such schools at major cities like Mohali, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Patiala, Amritsar and Bathinda, which would functional from the next academic session.
The Chief Minister said that such effort of the universities with the help of the state government would also be beneficial in bridging the ever widening gap between the haves and have-nots in the field of education. Assuring fulsome support and cooperation to the universities for this noble cause, Mr. Badal said that the state government would leave no stone unturned for it. He also said that the system must be consistently updated and fine tuned to ensure that children who lag behind were also given the requisite attention to help them attain employability and vocational skills.
Underscoring the need for giving career guidance to the meritorious students, the Chief Minister said that due to the lack of this facility the rural students were unable to opt the right stream of studies in their life, which ultimately hampered their future. He said that it was a known fact that the parents of most of the rural students were uneducated due to which they were not able to give any advice to their wards in such matters. Therefore Mr. Badal said that the universities must make endeavors to make the students aware about their career prospects by organizing special camps for them. He also asked the Education department of the state to publish small booklets for this purpose to be distributed amongst the students.
Emphasizing on the need for more research in the various fields, the Chief Minister also constituted a committee of the Vice Chancellors and educational experts to finalize the proposals regarding the research to be undertaken by them in various fields. He asked the committee to examine the various aspects of the Research to be undertaken by them so that overlapping could be avoided.
Prominent amongst those present on the occasion included Education Minister Mr. Sikander Singh Maluka, Advisor to Chief Minister on Media and National Affairs Mr. Harcharan Singh Bains, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister Mr. SK Sandhu, Principal Secretary Higher Education Mrs. Ravneet Kaur, Principal Secretary School Education Mrs. Anjali Bhanwra, Secretary Science & Technology Mr. Anirudh Tiwari and Special Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Mr. Gurkirat Kirpal Singh.