CHANDIGARH: Union Minister Upendra Kushwaha today said ensuring quality school education to every child was a priority for the Central government.
The minister of state for human resource development, who was speaking at a regional workshop on innovations in school education here, said the government was constantly seeking new ideas to improve the quality of school education.
“There is an urgent need to spread awareness regarding these unique and out of the box practices being followed in the sphere of school education,” he said.
Among the innovative steps undertaken by NCERT to improve the quality of school education was the practice of ‘Learning Outcomes’ policy, he said.
The Learning Outcomes developed by NCERT are the minimum levels of learning to facilitate the monitoring of students against expected benchmarks.
Punjab’s Education Minister Aruna Chaudhary, who also attended the workshop, said the state government was seriously considering introducing English as a medium of education in 400 government schools across the state.
“This initiative intends to bring government schools at par with the private ones where the parents prefer to send their wards, given their preference for English,” said Chaudhary.
She said the state government was focusing on school education as part of the strategy to strengthen the system at the very roots.
“The revamp of school infrastructure, stress on quality education and assisting the students from economically weaker sections are the core areas which would be under the prime focus of the Punjab government,” said Chaudhary.
The two-day workshop has been organized by the Union HRD ministry in collaboration with the the state government’s department of school education.
Many states of the Northern region are participating in the workshop. (AGENCIES)