State to include 54 college under RUSA

DAINIK NATION BUREAU

The State Government would request the Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry to include 54 Government colleges of the State in the Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA). This was said by the Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat while undertaking a review meeting of higher and secondary education departments at his camp office on Tuesday.

 He said that the issue of the recognition to the Special Basic Teacher Certificate (BTC) training would be discussed with the union HRD minister. The jobs of more than 13000 primary teachers who had done Special BTC courses offered by the District Institutes of Education and Training (DIET) are at stake as the National Council of Teachers Education (NCTE) has refused to grant retrospective recognition to this course.  Rawat said that the Government schools of the State are being clubbed in order to correct the teacher student ratio and increase the quality of education in these schools. He added that the State Government is planning to provide transport facility for the students of the government schools.

During the meeting, the Additional Chief Secretary, Ranbir Singh informed that buildings of 19 colleges in the state are under various stages of construction and for them a budget of Rs 28 Crores is required. The state has received a sum of only `6 Crores for building construction of colleges. Singh informed that these colleges are not included under RUSA and their inclusion in the programme would be beneficial. He suggested that the 35 percent budgetary support received for renovation of the colleges should be left at the discretion of the state government.

The secretary school education, Bhupinder Kaur Aulakh said that a sum of Rs 421 Crore is released out of budgeted Rs 921 Crore under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA). In RMSA a sum of Rs 142 crore is released by the centre while Rs 146 are still pending. She suggested that extension of Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) and SSA should be done to improve the condition of Government schools. The secretary informed the CM that the department would start board examination for classes V and VIII. In these examinations the students would give examinations in their schools while their answer sheets would be checked in other schools.

The meeting was also attended by Education Minister Arvind Pandey, Director General (DG) school education Captain Alok Shekhar Tiwari, Higher education director B C Malkania and other officers of the State education department.