Announcing a New Year gift, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath declared an increase of Rs 2,000 in the honorarium of part-time instructors and Rs 500 of cooks working in the Basic Education department.
Along with this, Basic Shiksha Parishad will provide money to purchase two sarees and aprons to the cooks and cooks will be provided with health insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh under Ayushman Bharat Yojana or Mukhyamantri Jan Arogya Yojana. Once these are implemented, a total of 27,546 instructors and 3,78,000 cooks will benefit from this announcement.
Speaking at a function on Wednesday, the chief minister said that the developments in Basic Education and other departments in the last four years and a half had changed public perceptions towards the state government.
“What we achieved today is not because of an individual, but is the result of a collective effort of people. Before 2017, schools of the Basic Education department were on the verge of closure. But now, the present government has started a special 'School Chalo' campaign which has resulted in enrolment of 54 lakh new students in the last four and a half years. Teachers, instructors and cooks have contributed a lot in increasing the enrolment of new students,” he said.
Yogi further said that schools had become symbols of people's faith. “Operation Kayakalp has been a great experiment of Uttar Pradesh. Operation Kayakalp was linked with public participation by asking MPs, MLAs and other leaders to adopt one school. Under this, out of 1,56,000 schools in the state, 1,30,000 schools have found a new lease of life. Now better infrastructure facilities are available in the schools. The state government realised that 75 per cent of girls and about 40 per cent of boys went to school barefoot. Therefore, it was decided that two sets of uniforms, bags, books, shoes and stockings, and sweaters will be provided to all students free of cost. At present, this facility is being provided to 1.82 crore children,” he said.
Earlier, the chief minister interacted with instructors Meenu Gupta, Ranveer Singh and cooks Seema and Rekha and released a magazine 'Unnayan Ke Saadhe Chaar Varsh’ of the Basic Education department and a short film focusing on the department was also screened.
Minister of State for Basic Education, Satish Dwivedi also addressed the gathering.