Education Minister virtually inaugurates 62 Newly Upgraded Schools

my uttarakhand news Bureau 

Dehradun, 16 Oct: With the objective of providing quality education to students across Uttarakhand, Education Minister Dr Dhan Singh Rawat today virtually inaugurated 62 newly upgraded schools under the School Education Department. With this, the formal commencement of classes at higher levels has begun in all these schools.

The upgrade will enable students from remote areas to pursue their education without having to travel far from their homes. They will now have access to quality education in their own schools, which is also expected to reduce the dropout rate in the state.

Minister Rawat inaugurated these schools virtually from the studio of the ICT Lab at Rajiv Gandhi Navodaya Vidyalaya, Nanoorkheda. On the occasion, he said that the state government was continuously taking steps to expand access to quality education across Uttarakhand.

He specifically announced that 62 schools across the state had been upgraded, including 8 schools to the high school level and 54 schools to the intermediate level. The district-wise distribution includes 4 schools each in Pauri and Chamoli; 3 each in Rudraprayag, Uttarkashi, Dehradun, Almora and Pithoragarh; 5 each in Tehri and Bageshwar; 7 in Haridwar; 6 in Nainital; and 8 each in Champawat and Udham Singh Nagar.

The Education Minister said that local residents and elected representatives had been demanding the upgradation of these schools for a long time. In fact, people had even staged sit-in protests demanding the same for schools in Jibli village of Pithoragarh district and Manmati village of Chamoli district. The state government has now fulfilled their demands, and classes at the upgraded levels have formally commenced in these schools.

Dr. Rawat also said that admissions to the newly introduced higher classes had begun. Students would no longer need to leave their homes and travel to distant places to continue their education, as they would now be able to receive quality education in their own schools.He further stated that this move would not only provide students with opportunities to study in higher classes but would also help reduce the dropout rate across the state.

The Education Minister directed Chief Education Officers to address shortages of furniture and teachers in these schools. He also instructed departmental officials to prepare a concrete action plan to bring the dropout rate down to zero up to the Intermediate level and ensure 100 per cent results in High School and Intermediate examinations.

Tharali MLA Bhopal Ram Tamta, Gangotri MLA Suresh Chauhan, Secretary of School Education Jyoti Yadav, Director of SCERT Vandana Gabryal, Director of Secondary Education Vinod Kumar Simlti, Director of Primary Education KS Rawat, Deputy Director JP Kala, Chief Education Officer of Dehradun Govind Ram Jaiswal, Financial Controller Virendra Kumar and other departmental officials were present at the programme.

Chief Education Officers from other districts, along with students from 150 schools, their parents, teachers, local MLAs and other public representatives, participated in the programme virtually.