JAMMU: Principal Secretary School Education, Alok Kumar, chaired the maiden meeting of the Steering/Monitoring Committee for the final selection of PM SHRI Schools from across the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
Pertinently, the first-of-its-kind PM SHRI Scheme was launched on Teacher’s Day, 2022, by the Prime Minister, and is also being implemented in Jammu and Kashmir.
Project Director Samagra Shiksha, Deep Raj (State/UT Nodal Officer, PM SHRI), Directors School Education, Jammu, and Kashmir Dr. Ravi Shanker and Tassaduq Hussain, Director Finance SED, Iftikhar Hussain, Special Secretaries SED, Kanta Devi, Nasir Wani, and Anu Behl and Joint Director Planning Parshotam Kumar.
Project Director apprised the meeting that Pradhan Mantri School for Rising India (PM SHRI) is a centrally sponsored scheme for the development and up-gradation of more than 14500 schools across the country by strengthening selected existing schools managed by Central, State, and UT governments and local bodies.
He informed that the Department of School Education and Literacy, Union Ministry of Education, has identified 4747 schools in J&K through UDISE + data. Among them, 4648 schools applied through the online challenge portal while 2159 schools passed as per the benchmarks set by MoE. However, after verification at the district level, only 1241 schools were approved for state-level verification/selection. He also informed that 722 schools are to be selected in 02 years, whereas in Portal for self-applying shall be opened 04 times a year.
Principal Secretary, while speaking on the occasion, said that rigorous exercise needs to be done as the PM SHRI Schools will showcase all components of the National Education Policy 2020, act as role model schools, and shall also offer mentorship to other schools in their vicinity. The PM SHRI schools will deliver quality teaching for the cognitive development of students and will strive to create and nurture holistic and all-around individuals equipped with key 21st-century skills, he added.
While deliberating on the issue, Alok Kumar said that PM SHRI Schools will provide an inclusive and joyful school environment that takes care of the diverse background, multilingual needs, and different academic abilities of children and makes them active participants in their own learning process as per the vision of NEP 2020.
Principal Secretary also reiterated that the PM SHRI Schools will be developed as Green schools and shall act as laboratories for the effective implementation of NEP, 2020. Besides, it will incorporate environment-friendly aspects like solar panels and LED lights, nutrition gardens with natural farming, waste management, plastic-free, water conservation, and harvesting, climate change-related hackathon, and awareness generation to adopt a sustainable lifestyle. More prominently, Pedagogy adopted in these schools will be more experiential, holistic, integrated, play/toy-based, and enjoyable, he maintained.
He intimated that the selection of Schools at the UT/State level is based on the assessment of the resources available and their effectiveness in terms of availability, adequacy, appropriateness, and utilization for each of the domains set in the guidelines of the scheme. The identified gaps will be filled in a systematic and planned manner, he added.
Linkage with Sector Skill Councils and local industry for enhancing employability and providing better employment opportunities will also be explored, he said.
Following threadbare discussion, 435 schools out of 1241 shortlisted Schools were recommended by the State/UT level committee to MoE for consideration under the PM SHRI scheme in the first phase.
Deputy Director (P) Bilal Rashid, Coordinator Ashwani Kumar besides all the Chief Education Officers also attended the meeting.
