The Advisor to Governor, Khurshid Ahmad Ganai today chaired a meeting to discuss the functioning of Education department and reviewed the status of implementation of centrally sponsored schemes in the State.The meeting was attended by Chairman BOSE Veena Pandita, Secretary School Education RigzianSampheal, Director School Education Kashmir G N Itoo, Director School Education Jammu Rakesh Kumar, Special Project Director SAMAGRA AR War, Director Planning Javeed Iqbal, Director BOSE Dr Farooq Ahmad Peer, and other officers.The advisor while chairing the meeting emphasized upon the officers to take measures to improve quality of teaching in our schools so that the quality of learning is also improved.The meeting was informed that as per census 2016 the dropout rate among primary and upper primary level students were on higher side as compared to the national level, owing to poverty and failure to capitalize scholarships due to complexity in obtaining of income certificates.“If dropout rate in comparison to national level is high we need to address it at an immediate basis,” the Advisor said, and directed the officers to create awareness about education and find what can be done to bring down the dropout rate.
Urging for adapting the latest teaching methods and promoting creativity, the Advisor directed the officers to introduce audio visual tutorials to create knowledge gaining atmosphere in schools.He said that the exams up to 7thclass must be conducted by school authorities, for which the papers will be set by DIET. He further said that the exams up to this class will be monitored by ZEOs and Headmasters, while as the exams from 8th standard onwards shall be conducted by SIE.He directed the Directors to issue zone wise yearly planners so that all the zones are aware with the activities they are supposed to carry out during the year.The Advisor highlighted the importance of teaching English and Urdu languages in schools and said that more needs to be done to promote the later.He also enquired about the status of attachments of teachers in the department and urged the directives issued by the Governor should be implemented in letter and spirit.Ganai directed the officials to refer the vacancies to recruitment agencies including SSB and PSC to overcome shortage of man power in the department.The Advisor also reviewed the functioning of mid-day meal and other centrally sponsored schemes, and also sought the status of availability of funds in these schemes.