Deputy Chief Minister, Dr Nirmal Kumar Singh and Minister for Education, Syed Mohammad Altaf Bukhari today convened a high level meeting to review the functioning of School Education department in Samba, Kathua, Udhampur and Reasi districts here today.Minister for Industries and Commerce, Chander Parkash Ganga, Minister for Forest, Ecology & Environment, Choudhary Lal Singh, Minister of State for Education, Technical Education, Culture and Tourism, Priya Sethi, Minister of State for Finance and Planning, Ajay Nanda and concerned Members of Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council were present in the meeting.Deputy Chief Minister appreciated the department for ensuring that all schools especially in rural areas get requisite facilities and adequate teaching staff so that the education standards could meet the present day challenges. He said that several reformative measures being initiated by the government are improving the education parameters at all levels and preparing the young minds of the state for a bright future.Dr Singh said that the proposals for future actions and policies are directed at enhancing the quality of education through curricular, extra-curricular and vocational courses aimed at maintaining highest standards of learning at the government institutes.Deputy CM stressed on the need for correct assessment of ground realities by expert committees to be followed by comprehensive reviews for need based changes in the concerned policies. He further stressed on including the essence of various schemes like ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’, ‘Swachh Bharat’ among others in the curricular of students to train them in the ideas of equality and cleanliness which are inseparable for the progress and development.
Minister for Education, Syed Mohammad Altaf Bukhari said that the government is committed to revive the school education in the state. “Our efforts are directed to mould the children from younger years and lay strong foundations for them to become responsible citizens of tomorrow” he said.Bukhari directed maintenance of effective communication between district administration and political representatives. He maintained that involving the local Legislators in the process of modernization and up-gradation of schools will bring new solutions to the table as they are well versed with the local needs and challenges.The Minister informed the meeting that Village Education Committees (VECs) have been recently reconstituted to work out village education plans for improving the educational profile, potential and needs of the respective village, “It will be the main source of bottom-up paradigm of decentralized planning”, he added.Altaf Bukahri further said that in the coming months, the concerned MLAs and MLCs will be empowered by the department to participate on a wide range of issues including infrastructure development, clubbing, de-clubbing and upgradation of schools, introduction of checks and balances system and so on.The Minister said his department was committed to resolve all issues, overcome challenges and bottlenecks. He extended full cooperation for the upgradation of schools, enhancing number of classrooms per school, addition of new subjects along with the teachers, augmentation of drinking water and sanitation facilities and providing better sports facilities at government schools.
Bukhari directed establishment of two model schools in each constituency and running the Mid Day Meal(MDM) scheme in Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode by engaging local NGOs. “To begin with, a pilot project is being taken up in Jammu and Samba”, he informed.Minister for Industries and Commerce urged for making government sponsored education a brand in itself. He said that the teachers at the government institutes are the best minds of the state and their potential should be tapped to the fullest to implement the best policies in education sector.Lal Singh said that the knowledge gained by the teachers through their participation in various state sponsored seminars and special courses needs to be shared and utilized for enhancing efficiency in teaching-learning process.Lal Singh stressed that the distance and population criteria for schools in both hilly and plain areas should be framed and well defined to assist fair policy implementation. He also appealed for proper maintenance of school infrastructure by timely uprooting vegetative growths from roof tops and walls of the buildings.Minister of State for Education, Priya Sethi called for inclusion of pre-primary classes with special focus on phonetics in the government school set up. She emphasized the faculty improvement programmes for providing trainings and add-on courses to the teaching faculty aimed at improving their efficiency in imparting education to the young children.Legislators apprised the meeting of several issues especially emphasizing scarcity of potable water, sanitation facilities, shortage of teaching staff, issues related to upgradation of schools, transfer policy, repair of damaged schools, smart schools & learning besides constituency specific requirements.Later, Minister for Education, reviewed the functioning of Education Department in Udhampur and Reasi districts.Secretary, Education, Farooq Ahmad Shah, Director School Education, S Ravinder Singh, Deputy Commissioner Kathua, Ramesh Kumar, ADDC Samba, Vivek Sharma, SP RMSA, SSA and senior officers of the School Education Department were present in the meeting.