Jaipur, The
Chief Minister Smt. Vasundhara Raje said that imparting quality education was
of utmost importance for the state to attain new heights of development.
Improvement in level of education by enhancing its quality was the priority of
the state government. Emphasizing on reforms in education sector, she said that
the human resources of education sector needed to be utilised optimally and
judiciously. Then only, we would be able to compete with other leading states
and make Rajasthan stand in the frontlinestates, she added.
Smt. Raje was addressing
the inaugural session of a special conference on Challenges and Strategies: New
Areas of Innovations at Harish Chandra Mathur Rajasthan Institute of Public
Administration here on Wednesday.
The Chief Minister said
that during the visit to Bharatpur Division under the Sarkar Aapke Dwar
campaign while visiting schools we were shocked to know that children had
neither learnt tables nor they were able to read simple Hindi properly. She
said that talking about investment and progress of Rajasthan would have no
meaning if our schools were in dismal state, she stated.
Smt. Raje said that
during her previous government, efforts were made to promote teaching of
English language. Motive of this was to give the children a choice and give
them opportunity to become global citizens. This would enable them to create
space for them anywhere in the world. She said that during previous government
Mid-Day Meal was our focus area and to connect young children with school and
provide them nutritious food contracts were made on Public-Private-Partnership
mode. Now, this programme had gone wayside and the state government was
committed to improve upon this too, she observed.
The Chief Minister said
that the state government was spending Rs 16,000 crores per year on 65 lakh
school students, which amounted to about Rs 25,000 per child. Even after
enormous expenditure on education, the parameters of education were not
improving. She said that education and employment were two major issues before
the state today. Youth of this country wished to have good education and
employment and we needed to think over this seriously, she said. Smt. Raje also
expressed concern about the decreasing standards of female literacy. She said
that several litigations regarding RTET were pending when she assumed the
office. So, the state government decided to conduct only one examination for
teachers' eligibility and recruitment.
The Rural Development
and Panchayati Raj Minister Shri Gulab Chand Kataria said that the quality
education was the sole axis for development of any state. He suggested for
making performance as a criteria for transfer of teachers' in the transfer
policy, promotion of sports activities and effective regular inspection of schools.
He highlighted the need for stringent steps to improve education system.
The Education Minister
Shri Kali Charan Saraf said that for a balanced student-teacher ratio in the schools , the state government decided to work on a
rationalisation policy. An optional board examination too had been decided for
the grade VIII students, for which 1.8 lakh applications were received.
Three committees
had been constituted for school, technical and higher education to look into
the suggestions received during the conference. These committees would also work on the
ideas received earlier from other sources. Innovative ideas and experiences
from the general public and educationists were also invited through post, mail
and website of the education department.
During the conference
Additional chief secretary Shri S S Agrawal gave presentation on the scenario
of education in the state. Additional chief secretary Women and Child
Development Smt. Gurjot Kaur, Secretary Labour Shri Rajat Mishra, Commissioner
Panchayati Raj Shri Rajesh Yadav also gave presentations. The Principal
Secretary Shri Srimat Pandey, other officials of the department, several
educationists and representatives of voluntary organisations were also present
on the occasion. The Chief Secretary Shri Rajiv Mehrishi proposed a vote of
thanks.
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