Chandigarh Commission of Protection of Child Rights in collaboration with the Department of Education celebrated International literacy day 2021.Ms. Palika Arora, PCS, Director School Education, Chandigarh Administration was the Chief Guest on this occasion. All the 20 Cluster Heads of Education Department attended the program. In addition, 95 Heads of government School also attended the program online. While speaking on the occasion, Ms. Harjinder Kaur Chairperson CCPCR, highlighted that 773 Million young people and Adults are still illiterate even though nation-wide Chandigarh’s literacy graph is much better i.e. 90% but female literacy is still not at par i.e. 81.2%. CCPCR along with Education Department and SCERT targets to meet the annual agenda and sustainable goal on the top priority with enhancing the digital skills in mass.
She highlighted the digital divide which affected Education to a great extent particularly during pandemic times and elaborated the efforts of the Commission to fill this gap by providing digital libraries in some periphery schools. Ms. Palika Arora launched the activity calendar of the commission for the week-long celebration of International Literacy Day. She appreciated the initiatives taken by the commission to make Chandigarh a Child-friendly city in general and particularly during pandemic times and hope that the Education Department and commission will work together to safeguard the interests of students. During this program, a booklet titled Caring the Children during the times of COVID-19, prepared by CCPCR was also distributed to the schools for its further distribution to children. Mr. Anil Gugnani, Lecturer, SECRT. Sh. Kapil Sood, TGT, Mathematics, GHS-53, Chandigarh resource person, Ms. Prabhjot Kaur, DEO, and Ms. Bindu, Dy. DEO, Dr. Monica M. Singh, Ms. Pooja Punchhi, Sh. Sanjay Sharma, Members of CCPCR, Sh. Chanchal Singh RTE Consultant and Sh. Kartar Singh were also present on this occasion.