Himachal Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Sunday announced steps to improve the functioning of schools that included the creation of the post of Vice Principal in all senior secondary schools in the State.

He also announced that the nomenclature of post graduate teachers (PGT) posted in schools would be changed to lecturer and a notification in this regard would be issued soon.

The Chief Minister made these announcements while addressing the 4th regional seminar of the Himachal Pradesh Teachers Union at Gondpur Banhera in Una district.

While laying stress on value added education, the Chief Minister said that education without value was disastrous both for the society.

He said that it becomes the duty of the teachers to inculcate high moral values in the students for a strong and vibrant society. The teachers should educate the students regarding our culture, tradition so that he or she feels proud of their rich culture and history, he said.

Thakur said that despite being a small State, Himachal Pradesh has been adjudged as the best State in education amongst the big States of the country and the credit for this goes to the teachers besides better policies of the State Government.

He said our country was once known as Vishava Guru and the tradition of Guru-Shishya was acclaimed by one and all but it was unfortunate that this tradition was slowly vanishing.

He urged the teachers to once again work collectively to regain this lost glory.

The Chief Minister said that teachers should also come forward to check increasing tendency of cheating among the students during examinations.

The teachers should imbibe the value of morality among the students so that they themselves say no to cheating. The teachers should set an example by their conduct and character, he said.

The Chief Minister further said that the present State Government has recently completed one year in office and this one year has been a period full of several major initiatives and many developmental endeavours.

He also announced to open Atal Adarsh Aavasiya Vidyalaya at Gehra Palata in Kutlehar area of the district.

Thakur also announced that Rs 20 lakh, Rs 15 lakh, Rs 10 lakh, and Rs 15 lakh for construction of buildings of Senior Secondary Schools at Mubarkarpur, Bedhara, Ghanaian and BO office building respectively.