Modi launches Mission Schools of Excellence in Gujarat
The Hindu
Conceived with an outlay of ₹10,000 crore, the Mission, partially funded by the World Bank, is aimed at strengthening the education infrastructure in the State
With a twin purpose of overhauling the education in government schools in Gujarat and tackling the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) attacks on the State government for poor quality of education, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday launched the ambitious ‘Mission Schools of Excellence’ project in Gandhinagar.
Conceived with an outlay of ₹10,000 crore, the Mission, partially funded by the World Bank, is aimed at strengthening the education infrastructure in the State through setting up of new classrooms, smart classrooms, computer labs and overall upgradation of infrastructure in schools.
Under its first phase, school infrastructure projects worth over ₹5,567 crore will be undertaken. The project will see setting up of 50,000 classrooms in addition to 1.5 lakh smart classrooms, 20,000 computer laboratories and 5,000 Atal Tinkering labs in government schools.
Wednesday’s was the second major event on education that the Prime Minister has attended this year in his home State ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections. AAP, the new political entrant in the State, has been attacking the State government over quality of government school infrastructure and education in the State.
Earlier, Mr. Modi had inaugurated a School Monitoring Centre in Gandhinagar and asked all States to set up such state-of-the-art centres that will help enhance quality of education in schools.
The launch of the project comes in the wake of AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal deploying his deputy Manish Sisodia to visit Gujarat and juxtapose the quality of education in government-run schools in the two States.
Mr. Sisodia, during his visits to a few government-run schools in rural areas in Saurashtra and south Gujarat, had live-streamed the poor quality of infrastructure in schools and lack of enough teachers. He had also invited the Gujarat Education Minister to visit schools in Delhi to see how smart classrooms function there.
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Several principals of government and private schools in Delhi on Tuesday said the Directorate of Education (DoE) circular from a day earlier, directing schools to conduct classes in ‘hybrid’ mode, had caused confusion regarding day-to-day operations as they did not know how many students would return to school from Wednesday and how would teachers instruct in two modes — online and in person — at once. The DoE circular on Monday had also stated that the option to “exercise online mode of education, wherever available, shall vest with the students and their guardians”. Several schoolteachers also expressed confusion regarding the DoE order. A government schoolteacher said he was unsure of how to cope with the resumption of physical classes, given that the order directing government offices to ensure that 50% of the employees work from home is still in place. On Monday, the Commission for Air Quality Management in the National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas (CAQM) had, on the orders of the Supreme Court, directed schools in Delhi-NCR to shift classes to the hybrid mode, following which the DoE had issued the circular. The court had urged the Centre’s pollution watchdog to consider restarting physical classes due to many students missing out on the mid-day meals and lacking the necessary means to attend classes online. The CAQM had, on November 20, asked schools in Delhi-NCR to shift to the online mode of teaching.
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