In a bid to impart quality education to the students studying in government schools at par with private schools, the Punjab Education Department has decided to convert All Government Schools of three smart cities of the State namely Amritsar, Jalandhar and Ludhiana into smart schools.

Facts :

• The Punjab education department has decided to convert all government schools of the state into smart schools to bring the quality of education at par with private schools.
• The smart schools programme is among projects worth Rs 900 crore approved by the Project Approval Board of the Union human resource development (HRD) ministry under the new, integrated scheme for education, Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan.
• While Rs 50,000 have been approved for converting two classrooms in each of the primary schools into smart classrooms, senior secondary schools will get Rs 3 lakh each to make teaching more interactive and improve creative thinking in learning process through the integration of technology in education.
• Punjab Education Minister Mr. O.P. Soni on Friday announced that amount of approximately Rs 20 crore has been released to DEOs of the three districts for this purpose and work will start shortly.
• These schools will be equipped with laptops, multimedia projectors and high-speed internet, so that the teaching and learning process becomes easier and more effective.
• The use of exploratory learning will help students to learn with ease, besides improving their creativity, analytical ability and problem-solving ability.
• Besides smart classrooms, the government is also installing rooftop solar power plants in such schools and modern sports facilities.
• Five new District Institutes for Education and Trainings (DIETs) in Fazilka, Barnala, Mohali, Pathankot and Tarn Taran districts, taking their number to 22, are also planned.
• An expression of interest was floated to provide Wi-Fi internet connectivity in government schools and six companies submitted proposals.
• Also, the department took a commendable step to provide free sanitary napkins for girls in Govt Schools and tenders of Rs.10 crore has been allotted for this purpose.
• Moreover, Ten Model Schools would be set up in every constituency statewide, in the forthcoming academic year.
• The tender of Rs 80 crore has also been allotted for uniforms of students and distribution of uniforms will commence in a week.
• English as a medium of instruction has been introduced in 2,387 government middle, high and senior secondary schools of the state. To sharpen English-speaking skills, the education department has decided to initiate the English training of International English Language Testing System (Ielts) level for students of Classes XI and XII in government schools.
• A non-governmental organisation is helping the department develop special multimedia content based on curriculum in state schools.

Analysis :

• Total of 2524 government-run schools in the state have been transformed into smart schools so far.
• The motive of this entire exercise is to streamline the education system by delivering quality education.
• It is a one of the most crucial and important projects of the department, which is aimed at upgrading the education paraphernalia of the state.
• This initiative would help in curbing the mushrooming of private school culture.The students emerging out of these smart schools would be able to clear any competitive exams in this cut throat competition era.
• Though the overall allocation of funds to the state is down under the integrated programme, Punjab officials are hopeful of getting their entire share this time, unlike the previous years when the actual fund releases were lower than the sanctioned budget due to the state government’s inability to give its matching share of funds.

New scheme Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan replaces SSA, STE and RMSA :

• The new programme, which replaces Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) and the Scheme of Restructuring and Reorganisation of Teacher Education (STE) from this year, has tighter norms for teacher salary, new infrastructure, research and teacher training institutes in the state.
• The centre has based fund allocation on performance-linked criteria such as National Achievement Survey (NAS) scores in Classes 3, 5 and 8; separate cadres for headmasters; teacher transfer policy for a minimum tenure in rural areas; percentage of schools covered under Shala Siddhi (school evaluation programme); elementary government schools with adverse pupil-teacher ratio (PTR); gender parity index and gross enrolment ratio.