Sood inaugurates Student Facility Centre at Maharaja Agrasen College
Delhi’s Education and Higher Education Minister, Ashish Sood, on Thursday inaugurated the newly constructed Student Facility Centre and laid the foundation stone for the Indian Knowledge Tradition Centre and sports facilities lounge at Maharaja Agrasen College, Vasundhara.
He also dedicated a multimedia seminar hall and five smart classrooms and launched an RFID-enabled library management system in the college library. The programme was presided over by Professor Balram Pani, Dean of Colleges, University of Delhi.
A delegation of 12 principals from University of Delhi colleges, fully funded by the Government of Delhi, was also present at the function today to felicitate the minister for resolving their long-pending issues. It may be recalled that for the past 10 years, these colleges had been deprived of government grants, totally disrupting the educational environment in these colleges.
Speaking on the occasion, Sood said the Government is working to strengthen higher education through improved infrastructure and technology and aims to drive a long-term overhaul of the Capital’s education system.
He said the new student facility centre would provide a more supportive academic environment, while the Indian Knowledge Tradition Centre is expected to promote research into Indian knowledge systems, culture and traditions.
Assuring teachers and institutions, Sood said no college would face a funds crunch and no teacher’s dignity would be compromised. “The Government is working with ‘scale and speed’ to expand smart infrastructure, including a plan to convert 7,000 classrooms for Classes 9 to 12 into smart classrooms in the next phase,” Sood said.
According to the statement, these colleges had faced a complete halt in Government grants for nearly a decade, which had disrupted their functioning.
The minister said the Government’s broader aim is to position Delhi as a knowledge capital by 2047, when India marks 100 years of independence, stressing that the focus would be on strengthening systems across schools, colleges, technical institutes and research centres.
