Chhattisgarh
Angandwadi initiatives
Chief minister Raman Singh launched the ‘Anganwadi Gunvatta Unnayan Abhiyan’ (Anganwadi upgrade programme) of the state’s women and child development (WCD) ministry in Raipur on January 4. Speaking on the occasion, he lauded the efforts of anganwadi workers in fighting malnutrition and said that with the active support of the WCD ministry, NGOs and social workers, child malnutrition has reduced by 17 percent in the state over the past decade. The number of anganwadis in the state has also risen from 21,123 in 2003 to 50,000 currently with the number of child beneficiaries crossing 2.5 million.
The chief minister felicitated women’s self-help groups and village sarpanchs for their contribution to the success of ‘Nava Jatan Yojana’, a scheme for eradicating child malnutrition. On the occasion, he also released computer software developed for monitoring WCD ministry schemes, a mobile app ‘Vajan Mitra’ for anganwadi workers, and a primary education kit ‘First Step’.
Jammu & Kashmir
Special coaching classes
The Jammu and Kashmir State Board of School Education (JKBOSE) has launched a 45-day coaching programme to help class XII school-leavers prepare for competitive entrance examinations of medical and engineering colleges, a board official informed media personnel in Srinagar on January 4.
“The programme will adopt a teaching methodology different from (other) private coaching institutes with experienced faculty engaged to take classes,” said Prof. Zahoor Ahmad Chatt, chairman of JKBOSE.
Seventy-five students from the Kashmir division have been selected through an online process on a first-come-first-serve basis. A nominal fee of Rs.3,000 will be payable per student.
Jharkhand
New primary textbooks
Jharkhand’s school education and literacy ministry has revamped the design and content of classes I-V textbooks to be made available to government primary school children statewide from the academic year 2016-17, a ministry official announced in Ranchi on January 5.
“The objective is to familiarise students with famous personalities of Jharkhand who have succeeded in national and international arenas. Studying about their icons will encourage and stimulate students to set ambitious goals and emulate their success,” said the state’s minister for human resource development Neera Yadav.
According to Manish Ranjan, director of secondary education, the textbooks rewriting and redesigning exercise is almost complete. “It is not necessary to seek approval from any specific institution as education is a state subject. But to avoid any controversy, we have sent the content to NCERT, New Delhi and the Regional School of Education. We have not ignored the NCERT syllabus but added to it,” he said.
Bihar
Ambitious bank accounts scheme
In a bid to cut down corruption and programme implementation delays, the state government is all set to transfer monetary benefits of education sch-emes — scholarships and school uniforms — as well as social welfare schemes such as old age and widow pensions, directly to the bank accounts of beneficiaries. Until now, the beneficiaries of such schemes were given cash routed through a long process.
Over 70,000 state government schools have been directed to open bank accounts for students by January 15 as uniforms and scholarships are distributed every January. If a student’s bank account is not opened in time, the parents’ accounts will do. “These transfers will be done using the NEFT process, which will save a lot of time,” said Brajesh Mehrotra, principal secretary (cabinet).
For schools, the order brings the challenge of opening up to 25 million bank accounts for students from 69,500 primary and middle schools and 4,500 secondary and higher secondary schools.
Haryana
Stern punitive measures
The state government has decided to charge-sheet principals and teachers of government schools showing poor results. The stern punitive measure comes in the wake of below-average performance by students in the recent class X and XII semester exams — only 35.24 percent and 56.75 percent respectively passed — conducted by the Haryana Board of School Education. The education ministry has already identified 322 principals and teachers of schools with 0-5 pass percentages to be charge-sheeted.
A ministry official informed media personnel in Chandigarh on January 20 that the ministry has convened a meeting of district education officers and principals when charge-sheets issued to 162 teachers. After the charge-sheets are issued, a departmental inquiry will be conducted and further action recommended. While teachers have described this initiative as a ploy to “gag the staff”, the state’s education minister Ram Bilas Sharma describes it as “a step towards improved results”.
Paromita Sengupta with bureau inputs