Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Tuesday kicked off a unique `Smart School’ initiative to boost education standards in the state, with the inauguration of a Government Senior Secondary “Smart” School in the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) campus here.To be equipped with laptops, multimedia projectors and high-speed internet, the smart schools will make the teaching-learning process easier and more effective, said the Chief Minister, adding that a total of 261 government-run schools in the state would be transformed into smart schools.Besides smart classroom, the government is also installing rooftop solar power plants in such schools, said the Chief Minister, who also inaugurated a 10KW Solar Net Metering project, developed at a cost of Rs 5.60 lakh, at the PAU smart school.
The solar rooftop plant in this school would help save Rs 1,20,450 annually, he added.The PAU smart school, developed at a cost of Rs 50 lakh, has eight new classrooms, each having projector facility along with other modern teaching aids. These classrooms would be used to impart education to students from class VI to X.Four new toilets have also been constructed while the existing ones have been repaired. For creating a positive educational environment in the school, landscaping has been done in some parts and colour coding is being done in the entire school.Prominent among those present on the occasion were Punjab Education Minister Mr OP Soni, Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs Minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu, MP Ravneet Singh Bittu, MLAs Sanjay Talwar and Kuldeep Singh Vaid, Commissioner of Police Dr Sukhchain Singh Gill, Deputy Commissioner Pardeep Kumar Agrawal, besides others.