As many as 6966 students of 10+2 of 42 Government SeniorSecondary Schools of Patiala district, today, got smartphones under the secondphase of Punjab Smart Connect scheme. Earlier, 3104 students of the district,were benefitted with smartphones, in first phase, said Cabinet Minister forForests, Printing and Stationary and Social Empowerment, Sadhu Singh Dharamsot.
During the district level function, 10 students fromGovernment Senior Secondary School, Civil Lines, Patiala given the smartphonessymbolically while a total of 10070 students of Patiala Government Schools havebeen given smartphones, under Punjab Smart Connect, so far. Similarly, studentsfrom Government Senior Secondary School Jhansla were given 40 tabs for school.
Dharamsot who was here to kickstart the second phase of "PunjabSmart Connect" said that Education is the pivot around which theprosperity of any society revolves by further adding that it seems the keypoint behind the ideology of the PunjabChief Minister, Captain Amarinder Singh, who has not only promised to focus onthe qualitative improvement in education in his poll manifesto in 2017 but hasprepared a roadmap to give a concrete shape to his vision at the ground level.Under his visionary stewardship, the Punjab has emerged as a pioneer state inthe country, which has succeeded in bringing in revolutionary qualitativeimprovement in school education during the past three years, he further added.
Fulfilling the pre-poll promise, the Punjab Governmentunder "Captain Smart Connect" scheme is providing smartphones to allthe +2 students studying in the government schools.
While lauding the commendable dedicated efforts put in bythe education department especially the teachers during to translate the visionof the Chief Minister, Captain Amarinder Singh into reality at the ground zerolevel, Mr. Dharamsot said that the Punjab had emerged as pioneer state inensuring optimum utilization of latest information technology apps to providequality education to the students during the unprecedented pandemic COVID-19.
“With a view to facilitating the students belonging tothe underprivileged section of the society to have access to the latesttechnology to avail the benefits of digital education, the Punjab Governmenthas started providing Smart Phones equipped with pre-loaded applications relatedto E.content of the syllabus", further said Forest and Social Empowerment Minister Punjab whileexhorting the students to make the judicious use of the Smart Phones to tap theeducational and employment avenues for shaping their career in a better way.
Enumerating various steps taken by the Punjab Governmentto revamp the school education, he said that abundant funds had been providedfor infrastructural development in the schools.
“The Punjab is the first state in the country to startpre-primary classes in government schools three years ago. "KhedMahals" for the tiny tots had been established by providing grants. Theprocess to recruit as many as 8393 pre-primary teachers had also been startedand to fulfill the long pending demand of the EGS, Education Volunteers, therelaxations in age and TET had also been given to the eligible candidates totap the opportunity of entering into government service”, he added.
Besides, grants had also been provided for extension ofaugmentation of infrastructural facilities like LED projectors in classrooms,construction of additional class rooms, Educational Parks, School uniforms, BALA work, Computer Labs, scienceLabs, CCTV Cameras, Language Listening Labs, Sports facilities, he said
The government schools have been converted into smart schools, outsmarting private schools inBoard Exam results consecutively for the second year, increase in enrollment, beating the best in ensuring optimumutilization of latest digital applications to provide education facilities viaTV/ Radio channels, Youtube, WhatsApp. Besides, the tech savvy school teachershave developed a unique "Punjab Educare App" to facilitate"Online Education' during the pandemic COVID-19.
There would be no exaggeration in terming the"online education" facility being provided by the Punjab EducationDepartment during the closure of schools for the past six months as the best inthe country. The lakhs of students are taking part in the online quizzes,‘Vidayak Muqable’ to commemorate the 400th birth anniversary of Sri Guru TegBahadur ji, bi-monthly examinations and tests under Punjab Achievement Survey.Recently, the school teachers have interacted with parents of more than 20 lakhstudents during the week long virtual PTM.
Others who graced the occasion, included K K Sharma,Chairman PRTC, Gursharan Kaur Randhawa, Chairperson, Punjab Social WelfareBoard, Sachin Sharma, Chairman, Punjab Gau Sewa Commission, K K Sehgal, SeniorVice Chairman, Punjab Large Scale Industry Board, Mr. Kumar Amit, Deputy CommissionerPatiala, Rajnish Shorie, Director, PUNGRAIN, K K Malhotra and Kiran Dhillon,Presidents District Urban Congress and Women Cell, Sanjeev Sharma, President,District Youth Congress (Rural),Dr. Ismat Vijay Singh, Assistant Commissioner(G) and Harinder Kaur, DEO (Secondary).