Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, on Friday, said that as many as 60 lakh new students had been admitted to the Basic Education Council (BEC) schools in the last six years, praising 'Operation Kayakalp' for the betterment of the council schools.
Interacting with schoolchildren during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's popular annual dialogue programme 'Pariksha Pe Charcha', the chief minister said that before 2017, children were forced to come to schools barefoot while today they were coming to school in proper uniforms, carrying schoolbags containing all necessary items.
With public participation and inter-departmental coordination, infrastructure facilities have increased in the Basic Education Council schools while the curriculum has also improved leading to significant increase in the number of students getting enrolled, Chief Minister Yogi pointed out.
The chief minister said that innovative efforts like 'Skilled India Mission' would give momentum to the campaign to bring about further change in the educational scenario of the state. It is worth mentioning here that elaborate arrangements have been made to connect schoolchildren in all the districts of the state with the programme of the prime minister.
The chief minister was present along with the children in the programme organised at Captain Manoj Kumar Pandey UP Sainik School, Lucknow.
The chief minister said that Captain Manoj Pandey UP Sainik School was the first Sainik School in the country after which a chain of such schools were opened in the country, and added that Uttar Pradesh would have five new Sainik Schools by next year.
Addressing the school management and parents of children going to take the Class 10 and Class 12 examination, the chief minister said that children should not be unduly pressurised to score better marks as it could have a damaging impact on them. “They should be encouraged for a healthy competition, but they should not be pressured for marks. Often, due to the stress arising out of the pressure, the children are unable to perform normally during the examination”, the chief minister remarked.
On the special occasion, the chief minister also honoured the meritorious students who secured excellent positions at state and national levels in the high school and intermediate board examinations in 2021-22. A total of 1,698 meritorious students, including 825 boys and 873 girls, from various secondary boards were rewarded with Rs 1 lakh, tablets, citations and copies of the book 'Exam Warriors' authored by Prime Minister Modi.
Appreciating the talents of the meritorious students, the chief minister said that the recent results of various examinations had shown the creativity of the girls. The state government was paying special attention to the education of the girl child, the chief minister said, pointing out that the government had made provisions for making education free of cost for them till graduation so that they become self-dependent. Chief Minister Yogi mentioned in this context the encouragement given to the girls under the Mukhyamantri Kanya Sumangala Yojana.
An exhibition of various models related to science was also organised by the students of basic and secondary education at the venue. The chief minister visited the exhibition and took information from the students about their models.
Meanwhile, Vidya Samiksha Kendra was inaugurated by the chief minister, as an addition to the series of initiatives in the field of systematic education at the Mid Day Meal Authority office. It is a 60-seater call centre with 18 screens, through which the dashboard is displayed using artificial intelligence. Under this Mid Day Meal Module, rejuvenation module, inspiration quality module, inspection module, skilled assessment test module, Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya module and activity module are operated. Quarterly skill assessment test will be conducted for all the students through Saral app while the report cards will be sent to all the students and parents after analysing the data obtained from the skillful assessment test. The data obtained from the sample and spot assessment will be studied by the DIET (District Institute for Education and Training) trainee and mentor on the Nipun Lakshya app. The data of student chatbot and teacher chatbot will also be analysed in Vidya Samiksha Kendra.
Prominent among the 149 meritorious students at the state level who were honoured by the chief minister included Prince Patel from Secondary Education Council High School, Divya from Intermediate, Vinod Kumar from pre-Madhyamik Examination of Secondary Sanskrit Education Council, Preeti Chauhan from Madhyama, Preeti Chauhan from Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations, Anika Gupta for high school examination of New Delhi and Ananya Agarwal from intermediate.
A total of eight meritorious students, including Yuvakshi Vij, Diya Namdev from intermediate, were invited on stage and given one lakh rupees, a tablet, medal, cap and citation and their mother and father were honored with shawl and turban. Furthermore, 57 students who got the first ten positions in the Secondary Education Council, Prayagraj in high school and intermediate examinations, 24 top 10 scorers in Madhyamik Sanskrit Shiksha Parishad, Lucknow, and 33 top 10 scorers in the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations, New Delhi, Central Board of Secondary Education, New Delhi, were awarded Rs 1 lakh, tablets, medals, caps and citations while their parents were honored with shawls and turbans. Apart from this, in the presence of minister in-charge/people's representative/district magistrate at the district level, a total of 1,549 meritorious students who obtained 10 highest marks in the high school and intermediate examinations of the Council of Secondary Education, Prayagraj, received an amount of Rs 21,000, tablet, medal, cap and a certificate.