Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Wednesday directed the state Education Department to complete civil works and recruitment process of the faculty for upcoming six residential schools at the earliest.
He maintained that the residential schools, meant for the meritorious students of all government schools, should be completed so that next academic session could be started in these schools on schedule.
“These schools must be made functional from the next session to impart quality education to all the meritorious students of the Government Schools across the state besides providing them free hostel facility,” he said while presiding over the meeting of the Society constituted for promotion of quality education for poor and meritorious students of the state, and reviewing the ongoing progress of these schools.
These schools are coming up at SAS Nagar (Mohali), Bathinda, Amritsar, ludhiana, Jalandhar and Patiala to provide free quality education and hostel facilities for all brilliant students of the government schools, who had scored 80 per cent or above marks in the matriculation examinations.
During the meeting, Badal directed all the senior officers to personally visit the respective sites of these schools to closely monitor the ongoing civil works. He also emphasized that strict quality control should be adopted while purchasing furniture and other requisite equipment for these schools.
Chief Minister asked Principal Secretary, Education, to direct all District Education Officers (DEOs) to inform matriculation students of the Government Schools about the procedure of admission and facilities being provided in these schools, so that eligible students could take admission in them.
Principal Secretary, Education, Anjali Bhawra informed the Chief Minister that the screening test for teaching and non-teaching staff would be conducted by Amritsar’s Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU).
She also informed that medical, non-medical and commerce streams would be commenced in these schools. Besides, English speaking and personality development courses would also be initiated separately so that students could compete in further exams without any problem.