SRINAGAR: The State Consultation meeting-cum-workshop for the third Chief Secretaries Conference on promoting ease of living in schools was held today at SCERT auditorium here under the chairmanship of Principal Secretary, Education, Alok Kumar.
The workshop was organized by School Education Department (SED) for preparing State specific notes for the 3rd Chief Secretaries Conference, scheduled to be held in the month of October-November, 2023 under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister of India.
Project Director Samagra Shiksha, Deep Raj; Director School Education Kashmir, Tassaduq Hussain; Special Secretary SED, Naseer Wani; UNICEF National Head, Terry; CEOs, DIET Principals, members from Pijam Foundation and Pratham also attended the workshop.
The workshop was organized by Samagra Shiksha in which more than 650 stakeholders of SED including teachers, students, parents of students from various government and private institutions, representatives and heads of more than 20 private institutions, NGOs, Civil Society organizations, JK BOSE, SCERT, and other stakeholders participated.
While chairing the panel discussion of the workshop, Principal Secretary of School Education Alok Kumar interacted with different stakeholders who posed questions on different domains of education like uniform academic calendar, school complex system, smart classrooms, creation of District Advisory council, aligning NEET and JEE as per NEP 2020, besides others. He replied to all the questions of students and other stakeholders.
While replying to a query from l student on digital access, the Principal Secretary said that results of the class 10th and 12th stands uploaded on the website through Digi locker.
Reacting on the establishment of smart classrooms, he reiterated that, this year more than 1300 Smart classrooms and 1000 ICT labs shall be established, besides Virtual Reality Labs, Astro physics labs, and other innovative initiatives are in the pipeline.
Principal Secretary further said that providing quality education to students, paving ways to further increase their learning outcomes, and bridging the social-gender gaps in school education is our main motto. He added that improvement in the manpower, through capacity building and mentorship programmes, ease in schooling shall be ensured.
He asked the concerned stakeholders for ensuring equity and inclusion at all levels of school education with a focus on Children with Special needs. He also stressed for reducing the dropout rate to a minimal value among all grades, so that the department may achieve the Sustainable Development Goal, by 2030 as per National Education Policy, 2020, which is the gateway for promoting Ease in Schooling.
Private stakeholders from various schools, during the workshop, suggested ease in transfer certificates/migration certificates.
In his welcome address, Project Director Samagra Shiksha briefed about the context of the workshop. He informed that during the 3rd Chief Secretary conference, five sub-themes have been selected in promoting ease of living for the citizens and this meet is being conducted to obtain feedback on different parameters like ease in issuance/re-issuance/modification of mark sheet, transfer/migration certificate, the introduction of re-evaluation/improvement in examination through online mode, verification of certificate/mark sheet, twinning of school for ease in admission, facilitation in registration of Aadhaar, universalization of use of Digi locker, quality of infrastructure in schools, improving learning outcomes and others.
He added that the suggestions and feedback given by all stakeholders will be summarised to prepare state-specific notes on promoting ease of living in schools through Good Governance and the use of Technology.
He urged all the participants to take an active part in sharing their input about the reforms required by the use of good governance and technology to make the access and quality of education better.
Earlier, the Deputy Director of Planning briefed the participants regarding the workshop through PowerPoint presentation.
