Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, May 23: Chairing the 2nd meeting of the Advisory Council for Higher Education, Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah laid thrust on growth and accessibility of quality higher education in the State to keep pace with global advancement of modern education.
The Chief Minister constituted a high level committee of Administrative Secretaries of Higher Education, School Education, Technical Education, Finance Departments headed by the Principal Secretary Planning and Development to examine the recommendations made by various sub-groups of Advisory Council. It will also review draft Vision Document 2020 prepared by the Higher Education Department.
“The Administrative Secretaries Committee should time bound finalization of the recommendations so that these are deliberated upon in the next Advisory Committee meeting to concretize the final proposal for implementation”, he directed.
The Chief Minister also launched e-library portal prepared for free access of the students to download relevant education material for their benefit. As many as 800 books on various subjects and faculties of education and over 1000 educational journals have been uploaded in the portal.
Underlining the need for regular updating of the portal with quality educational material, the Chief Minister underscored the importance of ensuring security of the web portal for uploading various material. He said there should be proper and foolproof checking for this purpose.
The Chief Minister said that Higher Education and School Education Departments should sit together to formulate students’ charter to ensure various services to them across the State. He said school going children and the students in higher educational institutions should get equally benefits by this charter.
Addressing the meeting, Minister for Higher Education, Mohammad Akbar Lone, gave overlook of the Vision Document 2020 and presented resume of the new initiatives Higher Education Department has put in place for consolidation and expansion of quality education in the State.
Principal Secretary Higher Education, K. B. Agarwal told the meeting that Higher Education Department will be made paperless within the next six months by shifting all its functional on e-governance mode. He also explained various aspects of the Vision Document 2020 and e-library web portal.
The meeting was attended by the Minister of State for Higher Education, Dr. Manohar Lal, Chief Secretary, Mohammad Iqbal Khandey, various Administrative Secretaries, Vice Chancellors of various universities functioning in the State, various senior officers and Principals of different Degree Colleges.
The two PowerPoint presentations were made by Advisor Higher Education, Prof. Nisar Ali and Special Secretary Higher Education, Himmant Kumar.
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