To bring Uttarakhand Government-run schools at par with the private ones in terms of quality education and other facilities, the State education minister Arvind Pandey exhorted the corporate representatives and the education department officials to take prompt steps in this direction while holding a meeting with them at the secretariat on Tuesday.
Talking to the media persons later, Pandey said that aware as he was of the State-run schools lacking the basic infrastructures since the time he was elected an MlA, he was determined to correct things as the education minister of the State. “We would try to involve the corporate world under the corporate social responsibility (CSR) to provide such schools with the basic facilities like chairs and benches to stop the practice of the students sitting on the floors. It is a painful sight to see the children taking studies while seated on the floors. We would also see to it that such schools do not suffer from fund crunch as far as providing the basic things like furniture is concerned. Besides, we have a plan to put up the portraits of the patriots on the walls of the class rooms to acquaint them with the legacies left by such towering figures,” he said. He further said that he would soon convene a meeting with the heads of the private schools to motivate them to reduce the tuition fees to enable the children from the unprivileged classes to avail education being imparted by them.
During the meeting, the minister was apprised that 12549 primary schools with 420239 students being enrolled in them, 7087 of them are bereft of the required furniture. Similarity, there are 2791 additional primary schools with 261816 students out of which 1020 do not have the required furniture.
The meeting was attended among others by the representatives of ONGC, NHPC, NTPC, SIIDCUl, Hans Foundation, Azim Prmeji Foundation, CII and others. The official side was represented among others by the additional chief secretary Dr Ranbir Singh and DG education Deependra Kumar Choudhary.
Those representing the corporate houses assured the minister that they would not be found wanting in the matter of revamping the infrastructure of the state-run schools. They pledged to build toilets in such schools under Swachh Bharat Mission and provide them with water supply during the school hours. They also assured the minister that they would help computer education being introduced in them through providing the students with lEDs. This aside, they said that they would take initiatives to provide the children with nutritious and hot food under the mid- day meal scheme. They would serve cooked food through Akshay Patra Scheme in four districts -Dehradun, Nainital, Udham Singh Nagar and Haridwar.