Minister for Information Technology, Technical Education and Higher Education, Molvi Imran Reza Ansari today urged educationists and academics to provide quality education at all levels.Speaking at a maiden review meeting of higher education department, the minister said asked the participating principals of various Degree Colleges of Kashmir region to help in overhauling higher sector across the State.“I want that the Principals other than the infrastructure must focus on providing quality education and most importantly peace has to be maintained on the campuses,” he said.“Nothing can be done when there is no peace inside the college campus and we won’t be able to focus on the quality education,” he said. He said that everything can’t be blamed on the situation.“We should stop linking everything to the situation. This is the only way forward for us. We must take the ownership and run the colleges and not let the outside forces to run it for you,” Minister asked the Principals.Ansari said that the government has prioritized education with the launch of numerous reformative measures in this regard.“A discernible transformation is being witnessed in all parameters of education with a notable development in infrastructure and related facilities in educational institutions of the state,” he said. He emphasized the need for involving all stakeholders, including parents, teachers and local legislators, in further streamlining of the vital sector on which the onus of building a strong and developed nation lies.
“If we have to transform our colleges and universities into world class institutions, it must safeguard the interests of young researchers and scholars and students,” he said.“I know in our State, higher education sector is faced with many problems. But we have to work together and transform this vital sector of knowledge,’ he added.Ansari stressed for preparing a mechanism for the students of the rural areas by which they could compete with students of urban areas. “There is a need of collective efforts and a well-knit strategy to further add to the standards of curricular and extracurricular activities, especially in rural areas,” he added.The Minster said that in order to make remarkable impressions on the ground, all the stakeholders and prominent educationists must come forward to help the government in evolving the higher education sector.He interacted with the Principals and sough their suggestions over overhauling the education sector. He said that he has been receiving a plethora of responses from intelligentsia and Government would launch some substantial steps to bring changes on the ground.He asked the Principals and teachers that government would provide all possible help to them if they wanted to go on any academic refreshing courses. “Academic collaborations must be done with foreign institutions that can help us bring some remarkable changes,” he said.The meeting was also attended by Secretary Higher Education, Javed Ahmad Khan, Director Colleges, Director, JJKSDM, Dr Peer Ghulam Nabi Suhail, Principals of the various colleges of Kashmir among other departments.