Punjab School Education and Public Works Minister, MrVijay Inder Singla Conferred State Awards on 80 Teachers and Educational Officials of the state for theirdistinguished contribution towards augmentation of infrastructural facilitiesand bringing in qualitativeimprovement in school education at the state level function organised at Patiala to mark the Teacher's Day.
He said that under the visionary stewardship of Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singhcoupled with the concerted, consistent and dedicated efforts of the officialsand the teachers of the school education department, Punjab had emerged aleading state in the field of education in the country. The Punjab has got thetop rank in the Performance Grading Index released by the Union Government fewmonths ago.
"The innovative initiatives taken by Punjab forsprucing up infrastructural facilities, qualitative improvement in education,starting pre primary education, ensuring transparency in recruitment as well astransfers of teachers as well as hassle free delivery of various public utilityservices etc. are being emulated by the other states", said the EducationMinister while expressing his gratitude towards teachers for their laudablecontribution in translating the vision of the state government at the groundzero level.
The people of the state have also been positivelyreciprocating the qualitative improvement in school education, which can begauged from the huge increase in enrollment in government schools. About 7 lakhstudents in the state have left the private schools and got themselves enrolledin the government schools, he further said while adding that Punjab has beengetting its teachers trained from international repute institutes like IndianSchool of Business and Bharti Education
Mr Vijay Inder Singla conferred state awards on 23teachers of Patiala, Sangrur, Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar and Fatehgarh Sahibdistricts at the auditorium of Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology,Patiala. As many as 23 honored physically at Patiala while others virtually inthe program conducted at District Headquarters. Out of these 36 Upper Primary Teachers and 22 Primary Teachers weregiven State Awards, 6 Upper Primary and 5 Primary Teachers were given YoungTeacher Awards and 11 Education Officers were given Administrative StateAwards.
Congratulating the teachers across the state on Teacher'sDay, Mr Vijay Inder Singla paid homage to the late President, Scholar,Philosopher and Bharat Ratna Dr Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan, who was born on this day in 1888, he said thathe (Dr Radhakrishnan) preferred to call himself a teacher despite being thePresident of India. Conveying his respect to the teachers, he said that afterthe parents, the teachers are the most important role models of one's life sothe teachers are lucky for having been a part of the nation building.
He also lauded the teachers for transformingunprecedented challenge of COVID-19 into an opportunity to prove their mettle.The government teachers have shown unparalleled dedication in performing uniqueservices in the field of education. However, due to the collective efforts of all the staff of the educationdepartment, the smart school policy remained also successful. Mr Singla expressed hope that Punjab wouldalso be leading in the National Achievement Survey. He said that Punjab had the best teacher-studentratio in the country and the entire infrastructure including sports in governmentschools, had been strengthened.
Welcoming Mr Singla, Secretary School Education, MrKrishan Kumar termed the selection system of state level awards as the bestsystem in the country. The mandate ofawards extended to school principals and district education officials and youngteachers to take advantage of the enthusiasm and boost their morale.
Mr Ramesh Kumar Ganta, Principal Secretary, Punjab StateTechnical Education Department, who was present on the occasion, congratulatedthe teachers and said that education was a mission and he was happy that schooleducation in Punjab was one of the best in the country. He said that in today's technological age,the importance of teachers has increased even more. DPI (Secondary) Sukhjitpal Singh thankedeveryone.
On this occasion, Deputy Commissioner Patiala, KumarAmit, Registrar IKGPTU, Jaspreet Singh IAS, ADC Jalandhar, DPI (Secondary) Sukhjitpal Singh, ADC (G) PoojaSayal Grewal, Assistant Commissioner (G) Jasleen Kaur Bhullar, In-Charge DPI(Elementary) Harinder Kaur, Deputy Director (Sports) Sunil Kumar, AssistantDirector (Secondary) Karamjit Kaur, District Education Officer (Secondary)Mohali, Jarnail Singh Kaleke, Baljinder Singh District Education Officer(Elementary) Mohali, Prabhsimran Kaur District EducationOfficer (Secondary) Fatehgarh Sahib, Jagwinder Singh District Education Officer(Elementary) Fatehgarh Sahib were present. Apart from this, the District Education Officers from other districts,participated Virtually through vodeo conferencing from respective districtheadquarters. The Program was moderated by Headmistress Rupinder Kaur Grewaland Amardeep Singh Bath.