For uplifting the standard of education of government run schools, the Punjab government has started a project in which government schools are being transformed into smart schools, and slowly this project has started showing positive results. Under the smart school project, the government school inside Punjab Agricultural University campus, here, is now Government Senior Secondary “Smart” School and it is the first such school of the district.This particular Government Senior Secondary “Smart” School is now one of the favourites of students from leading private schools, who have started taking admission here. This particular school was inaugurated by Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on August 14, 2018.Several students from other private schools are now showing interested in Government Senior Secondary “Smart” School and one such student named Ali Rana has now taken admission in class 11th of this particular school. Besides being an intelligent student, Ali Rana is also a state level sports player.Ali Rana said that he is feeling happy to have taken admission in this school because of several positive reasons. He said that he is studying in a leading private school of the city since class nursery and now, his annual fee was Rs 65000, whereas in Government Senior Secondary “Smart” School, he would have to pay annual fee of just Rs 2500. He said that all the teachers of this school are highly qualified and have joined service after clearing competitive tests, whereas in his previous private school, the teachers didn’t have to clear any test before joining service.
He further said that the syllabus as well as the medium of both the schools is almost same. He said that in his previous school, the students were forced to join tuition classes from their respective school teachers. Ali Rana said that the result of Government Senior Secondary “Smart” School has been coming very good for the last several years and he has come to know that the teachers really help the students.Besides this, the basic facilities of Government Senior Secondary “Smart” School are far better and smarter than his previous school. He said that he is working really hard to establish himself as a successful gymnast. He said that in his previous school, he was allowed to train only as a gymnast, whereas in Government Senior Secondary “Smart” School, he can play athletics as well as football along with gymnastics. He stated that he really liked the noise free and clean environment of his new school, which even helps the students in studying properly. Besides, the play grounds of this school are far bigger than those of his previous school.Sanjeev Thapar, Principal, Government Senior Secondary “Smart” School, PAU, informed that this school has been turned “smart” with a cost of Rs 50 lakh, has eight new classrooms, each having projector facility along with other modern teaching aids. 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.He further informed that ever since the smart school has come up, students from other private schools have started contacting him for admission. He said that they are hopeful that from next academic session, several students from private schools would become part of Government Senior Secondary “Smart” School, PAU.