Minister rolls out slew of measures to widen educational reach; No permission required for opening Community Primary School; JKNN to cover 1000 schools; 68 girls hostels to come up in state
JAMMU: Pleading for insulating education from disturbances, Minister for Education, Mr Naeem Akhtar today said that schooling adds value to a person’s worth and such a sacred endeavor being derailed is like pushing the society into the dark ages.
“Education is not merely about employment but it takes an individual on the path of knowledge and emancipation and it has to be made disturbances-neutral,” the Minister said while replying to the discussion on the Demands for Grants of Education and allied Departments in the Legislative Assembly this evening.
Akhtar said that the Government is o the way to make schools and colleges as knowledge hubs for not just the students and teachers but also for the community. “I express my heartfelt gratitude to the teachers whose untiring efforts and sincere commitment have made possible positive transformation in the education sector to take shape over the past couple of years,” he said and added that a lot is still to be done in the face of varied challenges to safeguard the future of students and connect them to the larger world outside.
“The biggest and the basic challenge we are faced today is to bring our children from the cycle of hatred and violence and restore their confidence in life, make them celebrate it and end their alienation” the Minister said and added that there is a need to change the distorted discourse among the youth and children and make them believe how they can flourish and progress in life and career while living a respectful and dignified life.
“A small beginning has been made with the coming of some consciousness about the importance of education and the initiatives taken at government level in this direction,” he asserted while referring to the achievements of the state’s youth in the field of sports and academics in past few months as unanimously agreed by the members while taking part in the discussion. He said the convergence brought in education has also helped in engaging youth more efficiently.
Referring to the situation in which the last exams were held in Kashmir Valley, he said education in the last five months had become an underground activity as the parents were sending their wards stealthily to schools early in the morning and come back by 9 am. “The place which has been a source of inspiration for knowledge in the entire sub-continent was pushed to such a dismaying situation,” he said adding “Such tough has been the challenge but the parents, teachers and students overcome it successfully which has been reflected in the results declared recently.”
The Minister rolled out a slew of systematic reforms and policies to widen the reach and objectives of education to meet state specific challenges.
Making a significant move towards universalization of education in the state, Akhtar announced that henceforth no government permission will be required for opening of community Primary School in the private sector. He said that such schools shall, however, have to maintain minimum levels of learning and should be open to inspection by the Government authorities. He also announced that the private schools would now be provided recognition for five years.
In another important decision aimed at promoting transparency in the Department, the Education Minister announced that henceforth services like marriage based transfers, maternity and childcare leave, study leave and hostel allocation for students will be online.
The Minister said it is heartening to note that with the modest but consistent efforts of the Departmental functionaries including administrators, teachers and non-teaching staff on one hand and the students, parents and the civil society on the other, there has been encouraging and tangible improvement in the educational standards of the government schools over the past couple of years. “The recent results of the Class 10th examinations for the Kashmir division and Class 12th results for Winter Zone (Jammu) reflect the steady transformation taking place in the government-run educational institutions,” he said.
Quoting the data, the Minister said that in Class 10th results for Kashmir division, the performance of government schools has improved by an impressive 24%, going up from the average pass percentage of 50% to 74% against the private schools which have improved their performance by just 12%. He said the overall percentage gap in the results of the government schools and the private schools has also been reduced from 29% to 18%.
Similarly, the Minister in the Class 12th results for winter zone of Jammu division declared recently, 31 positions out of overall first 36 positions have been bagged by the students of the government schools. Giving the breakup, he said, in the science stream, 9 out of 13 positions including 1st and 2nd position have been bagged by the students of the government schools. “In commerce stream all the top 10 positions have been bagged by the students of the government schools while in arts stream, 12 out of 13 positions, including the 1st position, has been bagged by the students of the government schools.
He said a student of Government Women’s College Gandhi Nagar namely Seerat has won the national competition in declamation and got a cash award of 2 lakh.
“Likewise the small reforms which the state has introduced are not only being appreciated but also followed in the country,” he said adding the no detention policy which has been done away by JK after discussing the matter at high level conference held in August when the Kashmir unrest was on its peak. He said despite objections by the speakers the state went ahead with the decision as “We have autonomy”. He said now exams would be held from 5th to 9th and those who would fail would be given another chance. “Now the centre government has also decided to come with the same legislation which has been vetted by law department and would be passed in next session of the Parliament.”
Listing other reforms, he said adding more advantage to the computerization of schools, the department decided to use this facility to connect the students of different regions of the state, who know little about each other.
“We have created a J&K Knowledge network by connecting 200 schools from across the state through which they are delivered inspirational lecturers from the faculty of top universities of the country and across the world. I assure you that by March 2017 we would have 1000 schools connected to this network,” he added.
About the reforms in higher education, the Minister said that two Cluster Universities have started functioning with the appointment of vice- chancellors. To expand the scope of colleges, he said 68 girls’ hostels would be constructed across the state to enable the students of far flung areas to receive higher education.
Responding to the demands of members, he said the state government has taken a policy decision not to open more colleges. Opening of schools indiscriminately, he said has caused great loss and devalued education as is felt by everybody these days. He said that is why the department is being appreciated for its move of rationalization of schools, which was initially strongly objected.
“Similarly, we have decided to make the existing colleges as the centres of excellence and to cater to the students of far flung areas, 68 hostels are being constructed across the state,” he added. He said this would also help in promoting cultural and intellectual intermingling.
Responding to other issues, the Minister said that the department is working to further streamline the transfer policy. However, he said the provision for inter-district transfers for the married female teachers would be implemented effectively and from March applications would be received online and responded in one week.
Earlier, several members took part in the discussion on Demand of Grants for Education and Youth Services and Sports Departments. They included R S Pathania, Javid Hassan Beigh, Bashir Ahmad Dar, Dileep Singh Parihar, Ch. Qamar Hussain, Engineer Abdul Rashid, Ravinder Raina and Abdul Rahim Rather.
The cut motions which were moved by the members were withdrawn after the satisfactory reply by the Minister.
Later, the House passed the grants of Education Department, for the year 2017-18, moved by the Minister, amounting to Rs 784400.88 lakh with voice vote.
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