Jammu, Dec 4:
Secretary School Education Ajeet Kumar Sahu today directed for setting up of classroom libraries cum Reading Clubs to inculcate book reading habits among the students, besides strengthening the libraries in government schools across the state. “Students will manage these libraries; teachers will have a supervisory role only. Aim of the initiative is to give students a sense of ownership of classrooms for promotion of reading culture in schools,” he said here at a meeting of Programme Advisory Committee (PAC)/ State Coordination Committee of Directorate of Samagra Shiksha. The meeting was attended by all the members including Chairperson JKBOSE, State Project Director Samagra Shiksha, Directors of School Education Jammu/Kashmir, Special Secretary School Education, Principal RIE Ajmer and other members of the committee. The Principal RIE Ajmer presented the action plan for the final approval from the committee. It was decided that besides students, citizens can also contribute books for the reading clubs. To personalise the classrooms, the Secretary said that students should be encouraged to display their drawings on the classroom walls to make it more attractive. The Secretary Education directed the officials to explore the possibilities of hiring buses in different areas of state to facilitate hassle-free movement of students of the Schools having more than 1000 strength. “We want to make sure that government school students attend their classes on time and overloading and other issues of transport do not become obstruction for them in pursuing education,” he said. On the action taken report regarding the decisions of the previous PAC and SCC meeting, the Secretary directed the Principal Regional Institute Education (RIE) to share the list of resource persons trained at RIE Ajmer with the divisional directors for utilising their services in the areas of expertise. He also stressed on the RIE Ajmer to focus on learning outcomes, Gender issues, CCE as per the needs of the SIEs. It was also decided that State Level workshop shall be conducted for preparing vision document and action plan on improving learning outcome of the children as well as developing pedagogical techniques and methods relevant for the state. The Secretary also directed for conducting Training Need Assessment through reputed institutes by involving various stakeholders and report to be submitted in two months. Stressing on the need of improving digital knowledge and skills, the Secretary directed for imparting ICT and computer training to all officials of the School Education Department. He further asked for imparting advanced level ICT training to the resource persons by ITIs and Polytechnics of the state. He also stressed on imparting training to Head of institutes and teachers in Leadership and Management, Account and finance, Subject specific training to subject teachers, Induction training and Pedagogy skills to all teachers. The Chief Education Officers of Kupwara/ Baramulla districts to submit a detailed proposal to State Project Director Samagra Shiksha to improve learning outcomes in their districts.
