Jammu, Nov 07: As many as 910 primary schools and 250 education guarantee centres were opened and 237 schools were upgraded throughout Jammu and Kashmir during the last one year of the present government, Minister for Education, Harsh Dev Singh has said. While the construction of 225 primary schools and 16 middle schools has also been taken up during the present year, the target for the next year is to establish 1650 new primary schools in the state, an official release quoting the Minister said today.
Asserting that education is on the topmost priority of the government, Singh said efforts are on to wipe out illiteracy from the state in the shortest possible time.
The Minister said that in order to improve the education set up in the state, all primary schools are being provided with a third teacher. Nursery classes have also been introduced in government schools and admission age reduced to four years instead of six years for enabling them to compete with public schools.
Free text books scheme has been extended upto 8th class and a special grant of Rs five crore sanctioned for improving conditions of class rooms for students, the minister said adding new subjects like biotechnology, environment sciences, biochemistry, sociology and computer education have also been introduced at higher secondary level.
Singh said that the effect of these reforms have become visible, as the enrolment in the government schools increased by 9 per cent in last one year.
Bureau Report