Punjab CM Amarinder directs finance department to immediately release Rs 80 crore for school education department

Chairing a meeting of an expert group of teachers at his official residence here, he said that paucity of funds would not be allowed to come in the way of overhauling the state's education system, a spokesperson said.

The group comprises principals and administrators of schools whose students had performed well in the board exams. The Chief Minister had convened the meeting to seek their suggestions on uplifting the standards of school education in Punjab.

The group of experts, led by the principal of Government Senior Secondary School in Patiala, Kiranjeet Kaur, had earlier submitted its recommendations to the Education Minister.

Singh directed the education secretary to work out a detailed scheme for strengthening school infrastructure so that sufficient funds could be made available for the purpose.

He also urged the NRIs from Punjab to make generous contributions to support the state in this effort and exhorted the business houses to extend support through their corporate social responsibility initiatives.

Underlining the need for strengthening the District Institutes of Education and Training (DIET) across the state, by providing the best trainers aligned with the latest teaching techniques, the Chief Minister suggested that if required, the trainer-teachers should be given exposure to the best private schools in the state.

He also directed the Education Department to complete the process of setting up new DIET centres in the remaining five districts by the end of this year.

During the meeting, Singh accepted the Education Minister's proposal of not to transfer teachers in the middle of the academic term, and also agreed to Principal Secretary's suggestion about creating a separate state training cadre while seeking a detailed feasibility report about it.

Highlighting the importance of digitization of study material, he instructed the education department to intensify its efforts in providing online teaching material to the students.

On the recommendation by the teachers, the Chief Minister agreed to ask the Centre to review the no retention policy for students from class 1 to class 9.

The spokesperson said the expert group felt that the policy was encouraging indiscipline among students who did not attend regular classes nor took the efforts of their teachers seriously.

The Chief Minister suggested that teacher study-tours to states like Kerala and Himachal Pradesh be organised to acquaint them with the teaching practices prevailing there.