Himachal: Teachers bring positive change in life and thinking: Chief Minister

Hamirpur: Chief Minister Thakur Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu today launched two ambitious initiatives of the Education Department in Hamirpur – tablet distribution to primary school teachers and Chief Minister Bal Poshan Aahar Yojana. The Chief Minister said that as part of the government’s efforts to promote digitalization in education and administrative work, 17,510 primary school teachers in the state will be given tablets. The objective of this new initiative is to promote modernization in teaching work, ensure access to digital educational resources and simplify administrative work like recording attendance and updating data. This facility will bring qualitative improvement in education and teachers will present educational material to children in an effective manner. Apart from this, through these tablets, teachers will be able to increase their knowledge by participating in online training programs. 

The Chief Minister also launched an innovative scheme ‘Mukhyamantri Bal Poshtik Aahar Yojana’ designed to provide nutritious food to children in government schools. This scheme will supplement the existing mid-day meal and will benefit children from nursery to class VIII in 15,181 schools in the state. At present, 5,34,293 children in the state are benefiting from the mid-day meal scheme. With the launch of this scheme, children will now get additional nutritious food. Under the scheme, boiled eggs or fruits will be given once a week keeping in mind the choice of children and fresh fruits will be purchased from the local market. The state government has allocated an additional budget of Rs 12.75 crore for the Mukhyamantri Bal Poshtik Aahar Yojana in this financial year.

The Chief Minister said that due to the wrong policies of the previous BJP government, the state has slipped to 18th position in the ranking of qualitative education sector. But the present government is making efforts to improve the education sector. The present state government, after assuming office, has taken many important steps to provide qualitative education to the children. He said that the state government is working at three levels to improve education. He said that lack of funds will not be allowed to come in the way of providing qualitative education for the bright future of children. Under this, teachers are being sent abroad on educational tours, in the first phase, 217 teachers were sent to Singapore to learn new teaching systems, special emphasis is also being laid on the development of educational infrastructure in the state. Rajiv Gandhi Day-boarding Schools are being opened in every assembly of the state. Teachers bring positive changes in the lives and thinking of students and teachers play an important responsibility. Therefore, the place of teachers in the society is important.

He said that to provide better education to children, the state government has decided to transfer teachers of government schools once a year. Earlier, 5000 teachers were caught in the transfer process throughout the year. Staff will be recruited on out-source basis for school related matters. He said that schools with less than five students are being merged with nearby schools and if required, Rs 20,000 will also be spent on transport facility for students. Criticizing the decision of the previous BJP government to open more than 400 educational institutions without availability of staff, the Chief Minister said that teachers from other schools were sent to the newly opened schools due to which the level of education fell. Keeping these things in mind, the state government had to close schools with zero enrollment. Colleges will also be rationalized for quality education in the state. 

Thakur Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu said that the previous BJP government did not have the courage to take tough decisions to strengthen the economy of the state. They waived off electricity and water bills of rich families only to gain political benefits. If this process of distributing freebies had continued like this, the debt per person would have reached two lakh rupees. He said that despite the dire economic condition of the state, the state government has provided seven percent dearness allowance to the employees and this year arrears will be paid to 28 thousand pensioners above 75 years of age. He said that government employees are like my family members. It will take six more months to stabilize the economy of the state. Arrears and dearness allowance will be provided when the economy of the state comes back on track. More than nine thousand crore rupees of NPS fund is stuck with the central government. He called upon the central government to cooperate in bringing back this amount. 

The Chief Minister said that the State Government is upgrading 850 educational institutions into Centres of Excellence. The Government has adopted 6 thousand orphan children as Children of the State under the Mukhyamantri Sukh Ashray Yojana. Under this scheme, education care of these children till the age of 27 years, annual travel expenses and assistance is being provided to them to become self-reliant. He said that a Centre of Excellence is being built in Kandaghat of Solan district to provide special education to about 300 specially abled children, so that they can get higher education. He said that for maximum use of resources in schools, cluster system has been implemented in institutions within a radius of 500 meters. He said that keeping in view the current context, new age courses like Artificial Intelligence, Data Learning, Electric Vehicle Machine, Technician Mechatronics, Fiber-to-Home Technology, Solar Technology and Internet of Things (IoT) Technician Training have been included in the educational institutions to provide modern education to the students of the state.

Education Minister Rohit Thakur said that Himachal Pradesh is leading in the field of quality education, in which Hamirpur district is leading in the entire state. He said that under the guidance of Chief Minister Thakur Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, every possible effort is being made to provide quality education to every child of the state. In view of this, the government has also had to take some tough decisions, which will yield concrete results in the future. He said that schools with less than five students are being merged in nearby schools and targets are being set for better use of resources. He said that the scheme of providing tablets to primary teachers will yield positive results in the future. He said that the present state government had inherited a poor economic system. Despite this, many important steps have been taken by the government towards making the state self-reliant. The Education Department is going to fill 7 thousand posts, out of which 2300 posts have been filled. Apart from this, additional staff is also being deployed in schools where there is a shortage of teachers.

Technical Education Minister Rajesh Dharmani, MLAs Suresh Kumar, Captain Ranjit Singh Rana and Vivek Sharma, Chairman Kangra Cooperative Primary Agricultural and Rural Bank Ramchandra Pathania, Chairman APMC Ajay Sharma, former MLAs Anita Verma, Sohan Lal and Manjeet Dogra, Congress leaders Dr Pushpendra Verma, Subhash Dhatwalia and Naresh Thakur, Deputy Commissioner Amarjit Singh, Superintendent of Police Bhagat Singh Thakur, Director Higher Education Amarjit Singh, Director Elementary Education Ashish Kohli, State Project Director Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan Rajesh Sharma, District Congress President Suman Bharti were also present on the occasion along with other dignitaries.