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While presiding over a meeting of senior officers of the Education department on Tuesday, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said that the state government was laying special focus on providing quality education to the students in government educational institutions.
The Chief Minister expressed serious concern over the declining number of enrolments in government primary schools which had dropped from 1,30,466 in 2002-2003 to 49,295 in 2023-24, said an official release. He said that there were 89 government primary schools and 10 government middle schools currently having zero enrolment students in the state. He said that 701 primary schools had student's enrolment of less than five, out of which 287 schools were located within a radius of two kilometers of another school whereas an additional 109 schools had a strength of only five students. Furthermore, 46 middle schools were within a radius of three kilometers, whereas 18 additional schools had only five students. Sukhu said that because of the above facts, it was essential to rationalize the functioning of schools and directed the Education department to explore the possibilities of merging the schools having low enrolments. This step would not only ensure adequate staff in the schools but also pave the way for providing quality education to the students studying in the government schools. The Chief Minister also said that the Government was setting up Rajiv Gandhi Day Boarding Schools in each Assembly constituency in a phased manner which would ensure quality education and holistic development of the students to make them confident citizens of the Nation. He said that two fully equipped boarding schools would be established in tribal areas of Kinnaur and Spiti to provide better education facilities to the students. He directed the department to identify suitable land to set up these boarding schools in the respective areas. Sukhu said that to ensure better resource mobilization of the schools, the government has formed clusters, and options have been given to the school management to select the smart uniform for the students of their choice. He said that the present state government had introduced many innovative initiatives to enhance the standards in the government institutions English medium had also been implemented from first class in all the government schools. Education Minister Rohit Thakur and Chief Parliamentary Secretary Ashish Butail also attended the meeting and gave their valuable inputs. Secretary, Education Rakesh Kanwar, Director, Higher Education Amarjeet Singh, Director, Elementary Education Ashish Kohli and other senior officers also attended the meeting. (ANI)
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