Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti today launched a comprehensive IT-enabled School Management Information System (SMIS) developed by the Education Department in collaboration with several agencies like NIELIT, ISRO, Digital India and MHRD etc.SMIS provides a complete database of all the schools spread across the State including staff strength, student-teacher ratio and other components.The Chief Minister also launched a Unified Data Information System for Education (U-DISE) which details the enrolments and pupil teacher ratios from school-to-school.Mehbooba Mufti also inaugurated the GIS mapping of schools as well. Under this initiative, the geographical locations and 3D structural aspects of the schools in the State have been distinctly marked. It also details the school infrastructure and schools cluster structure zone wise in a district. As many as 28,000 schools are being taken up under GIS mapping in the State.The Chief Minister also launched an online portal - Vocational Monitoring Details - for monitoring the implementation of various vocational courses in the State. To address the critical infrastructure gap and ensure time management, the Chief Minister also formally launched e-Office for online routing of files in the School Education Department in the Civil Secretariat.
On the occasion, Mehbooba Mufti interacted with students of around 20 schools across the State through video-conferencing. She impressed upon the students to make optimum use of e-learning facilities for attaining excellence in education. She asked the students to use these applications for connecting with the outer world to know about the rapid changes taking place in education sector. She also urged them to use these applications for promoting sports and cultural activities among the students in schools.The Chief Minister spoke to the students of schools at Akhnoor, Basohli, Bijbehara, Kralpora, Kupwara, Kishtwar, Chadoora, Jawahar Nagar, Srinagar, Argam, Bandipora and Rajpora, in Pulwama district. She enquired from the students about their academics and the problems they were facing. The students put up several demands like introducing more smart classes, opening more CM’s Super-50 coaching centres, more laboratories and infrastructure development at their schools.The Chief Minister complimented the Education Department for having launched these initiatives in a short span of time which, she said would enable J&K’s students to get knowledge connectivity with the outside world. She hoped that with these IT-enabled applications, the schools would be converted into hubs of knowledge and excellence.Minister for Education, Naeem Akhtar, who was present on the occasion, said the aim of this initiative is to throw it open to alumni of these schools who may wish to contribute further in the development of their alma mater.
On the occasion, the Chief Minister was apprised about various online activities undertaken in the educational sector in the State. She was informed that very soon tele-classrooms under EDUSAT would be started whiles as WiFi connectivity has been provided in all the colleges of the State. She was told that a core team of 60 faculty members are working on online front in Higher Education Department. Two community radio stations are coming up at Jammu and Srinagar, she was informed.Two MoUs were also signed on the occasion between the Education Department and NIELIT to provide e-learning to 6.5 lakh people in the State and extend e-learning facilities to schools in tribal areas under RMSA. These MoUs were signed as a part of ‘Digital India’ campaign.Present on the occasion were Minister of State for Planning, Ajay Nanda, Financial Commissioner, Agriculture Production, Pramod Jain, Financial Commissioner, Planning & Development, B. B. Vyas, Vice Chancellors of Jammu University and Central University of Jammu, Principal Secretary, Home, R. K. Goyal, Principal Secretary, Education, Shaleen Kabra, Commissioner Secretary, Finance, Navin Kumar Choudhary, Commissioner Secretary, Higher Education, Asgar Samoon, Commissioner Secretary, PDD, Dheeraj Gupta, Secretary, Tribal Affairs, Saurav Baghat, SPD RMSA/SSA, Saugat Biswas, Chairman BOSE, Zahoor Ahmad Chat, Director, Information and Public Relations, Shahid Iqbal Choudhary, Director, NIELIT, A H Moon, Directors of School Education Department and other senior officers of the School Education Department.