Union Secretary DoSEL reviews Education scenario in J&K

Srinagar, Sep 30: Union Secretary, Department of School Education and Literacy (DoSEL), Sanjay Kumar, along with a team of senior officers, Tuesday conducted a detailed review of the School Education Department in Jammu and Kashmir.
Union Secretary who chaired a high level meeting at SKICC Srinagar, stressed the need to improve quality of education throughout government schools in Jammu and Kashmir.
He encouraged for carrying out sustainable infrastructure upgradation to facilitate at all government schools for education.
At the outset, Sanjay Kumar called for a massive increase in student enrolment in government schools and directed the department to ensure quality education through vocational and skill-based learning across all institutions.
The meeting was attended by Secretary School Education J&K Ram Niwas Sharma, Director General School Education Kashmir GN Itoo, Director School Education Jammu Dr. Naseem Choudhary, senior officers from various wings of the Education Department including Samagra Shiksha, JKBOSE, SCERT, and Directorates of School Education Kashmir and Jammu were present in the meeting.
During the review, Union Secretary issued directions to further strengthen the standards of school education in J&K and laid special stress on addressing infrastructural gaps, efficient human resource management, and mainstreaming out-of-school children.
Sanjay Kumar also underscored the importance of coordinated efforts by all stakeholders to ensure quality education and holistic development of children in Jammu and Kashmir.
During the review, Union Secretary highlighted the issue of student dropouts and directed officials to ensure that no student leaves school before completing Class 12.
He also emphasised the robust functioning of pre-primary schools and called for large-scale enrolment of children in kindergarten classes.
Importantly, Sanjay Kumar instructed the department to reconsider the board examination of Class 11 and asked JK BoSE doing away with it.
The Secretary expressed concern over the comparatively low enrolment in government schools as against private institutions and directed officers to take measures to make government schools the prime centres of learning and career development.
At the outset, deliberations were held on the proposal for establishing a Regional Office of CBSE in J&K. Among other agendas, adoption of curriculum as per NEP-2020 across all classes, Capacity building of teachers on NCF, CBSE curriculum, assessments, and conduct of board examinations, School education indicators of J&K, presented by DoSEL were also discussed.
At the outset, detailed review on implementation and progress under Samagra Shiksha & PM SHRI and other schemes was also held.
He also reviews progress under PARAKH and High-Powered Committee (HPC), Digital interventions including DIKSHA, VSK, and PM e-VIDYA channel usage.
Union Secretary reviews functioning of DIET/ITEP institutions in J&K and stressed on capacity building of teachers under various training courses.
Senior Officers accompanying the Secretary included Anand Rao Patil, Union Additional Secretary Digital Education; A Srija, Economic Advisor, DoSEL; Pankaj KP Shreyaskar, DDG Statistics; Harikumar Janakiraman, Director Digital Education; Sreekala P. Venugopal, Director, UT; Ram Singh, Deputy Director, DoSEL, Abdul Momin, TSG Consultant J&K, DoSEL.
Dinesh Prasad Saklani, Director, NCERT, Rahul Singh, Chairperson, CBSE, Pankaj Arora, Chairperson, NCTE, Akhilesh Mishra, Chairperson, NIOS, Indrani Bhaduri, CEO & Head, PARAKH were present on the occasion.