Appreciating efforts of Education Department towards promoting all parameters of education sector in Jammu and Kashmir, Principal Secretary, School Education Department, B K Singh, on Tuesday said that a multi-pronged strategy is being ensured to make the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) as number one institution of the country.Principal Secretary was speaking at a two day orientation workshop of master trainers and resource persons organized by the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) at District Institute of Education and Training (DIET), Srinagar.
“J&K administration is implementing a slew of innovative measures towards revamping SCERT into the most excellent entity across the nation. Appointment of highly qualified and expert staff through nominations and selections besides ensuring exceptionally accountable and transparent functioning of the Council are some of the plans in this regard,” Singh maintained. He stressed on creating a working synergy between the NIOS and the Education Department to achieve the set targets in a cohesive manner. Principal Secretary said that expertise of NIOS, which has done a tremendous amount of work over the years, can be utilized in mainstreaming the out-of-school children adding that around 45,000 out-of-school children need immediate rehabilitation.
He issued on the spot instructions to make SCERT auditorium fully functional as soon as possible.Principal Secretary also stressed on the need to focus on output of the training given to the teachers and other resource persons. “Unless the output of the training is not measured on ground, we shall not be in a position to gauge our success,” he added. “The ultimate beneficiary of any training should be the student”, he maintained. Singh, while visiting the library at the SCERT, asked the officers to focus on procuring more books especially on Science for the larger interest of students community.
“The mechanism of borrowing a book from the library is primitive,” Singh observed saying that ‘In an era of digital age, we can’t afford to see a library functioning in any other mode but automatic’.Later, Principal Secretary also visited the School Leadership Academy (SLA) office housed in Ustad Ghar and interacted with the staff there. He was apprised of the programs conducted by the Academy ever since its conception by Nodal Officer, SLA, Dr Fayaz Ahmad Bhat.Principal Secretary stressed on conducting residential programs for teachers.