Principal Secretary School Education & Skill Development departments, Dr Asgar Hassan Samoon today directed the School Education Department to create a portal for online monitoring and disbursement of payments for the works done by the department.These directions were given by him while chairing a meeting to discuss the draft annual works plan and budget for the fiscal 2020-21 under flagship Samagra Shiksha scheme.The meeting was attended by Chairperson J&K Board of School Education, Veena Pandita; Director General Budget, Mohammad Yaqoob Itoo; State Project Director, Samagra Shiksha Arun Manhas; Director School Education Kashmir, Mohammad Younis Malik; Director School Education, Jammu, Anuradha Gupta; representatives of Universities of Jammu and Kashmir through video conferencing.Special Secretary Finance, Shamim Ahmad Wani and other officers also participated in the meeting.The Principal Secretary emphasized on putting special focus on increasing the female literacy using resources under this scheme by providing the hygienic environment in schools, provision of separate washrooms for girls and providing sanitary napkins to the adolescent girls.Dr Samoon also asked the officers to reduce the drop out rate at primary, upper primary, middle and secondary levels by establishing schools in far flung areas and continuous assessment of students. He further took notice of the gap between gross enrolment ratio at national level and local level in J&K. He asked the concerned to lessen the same working on a mission mode.
Samoon marked that the scheme is a revolutionary one encompassing every aspect of school education to improve the quality of education. He advised the officers to facilitate the students by whatever means besides providing them the tablets so that the goal of e-learning through technological intervention in learning becomes achievable.Dr. Samoon further advised to introduce new Vocational Trades in maximum number of schools to provide skill courses to students so as to open avenues for them for meeting emerging market demands.
Besides, he stressed on expediting the work on establishing SCERT by proposing Rs 20 Cr for each division.He stressed on devising mechanisms to conduct continuous evaluation at each class levels, to minimize gender gaps in enrolments and to evolve strategies in making Heads of Institutions more responsible.The State Project Director in his PowerPoint presentation informed the meeting that the funding pattern of Samagra Shiksha scheme is in the ratio of 90:10 between centre and J&K. He further informed that J&K has 12 focus districts and 2 aspirational districts under this scheme. He revealed that J&K has a total of 28654 schools with a gross enrolment ratio of about 82.55 at primary level, 72.21 at upper primary, 66.52 at Secondary and 59.39 at Higher Secondary levels.The directors of both the divisions informed the meeting about the different achievements made under this scheme. They further suggested the future requirements and scope of advancements to be made under this scheme.It was further given in the meeting that 2500 free tabs were distributed to enable participation of students in online classes on e-paathshala/DIKSHA. Free textbooks worth Rs 21.40 crores were distributed among 8,98,745 children studying in classes first to eighth besides providing laptops to resource rooms established for specially abled children.A total of 626 vocational labs are being established throughout J&K under this flagship scheme, the meeting was informed.About 1570 seasonal education volunteers are engaged each year to impart education to more than 30000 nomadic children population, it was added. Besides providing stipend of Rs 1200 to each of the 3873 KGBV girl students through DBT mode. Distribution of aids and appliances are provided under this scheme and student exchange programme implemented under this scheme.A career portal providing information on more than 550 career opportunities, more than 21000 colleges, 1150 entrance examinations and 1120 scholarship programmes has also been launched, as was given up in the meeting. Jammu & Kashmir Knowledge Network connecting 500 schools for 2-way interactive lectures across the globe is also one of the feature of this scheme here, the meeting was informed.It was further revealed that hostels for girls, boys, additional classrooms, boundary walls, toilets are also constructed under this scheme. Besides, provision of providing stationary and learning material to the students is also there in this scheme.