The Union Education minister Dharmendra Pradhan has directed the Uttarakhand government to prepare a comprehensive five-year plan to develop primary, middle and higher education in the state. The minister has also required the state government to send the proposal of a five-year plan to the center.
On a day’s visit to Dehradun on Saturday, the Union Minister met Uttarakhand’s education, health, and cooperative minister, Dhan Singh Rawat. Later the duo held a meeting with the top officers of school education and higher education departments at the ONGG auditorium. Rawat said that a detailed discussion on ways to implement the New Education Policy (NEP) and impart quality education in the state was held. He said that the demand for central help in improving infrastructure, setting up smart classrooms, construction of new Navodaya Vidyalayas and opening residential schools in all block headquarters in Uttarakhand was sought in the meeting with the union minister. At the conference, the education minister of Uttarakhand also requested that the center approve the state government’s proposal on setting up 35 Kendriya Vidyalayas and nine Sainik Schools. The issues like implementation of NEP, preparation of curriculum which increase the employment generation and enhance skill development, linking IIM and IITs with other educational institutes and strengthening the universities also came up for discussion in the meeting with the officers of the higher education department.
The union minister said that a review meeting with the department officers would be held in June, in which the secretary of the union government would be present.
The meeting was attended by Additional chief secretary Radha Raturi, secretary of school education R Meenakshi Sundaram, secretary higher education Deependra Chaudhary, additional secretary Dipti Singh, Director General Education Bansidhar Tiwari, and others were present in the meeting.