MoS External Affairs, Education concludes two day Udhampur visit

UDHAMPUR : Union Minister of State for External Affairs and Education, Dr Raj Kumar Ranjan Singh’s two day visit, as part of the public outreach programme to District Udhampur concluded here today.

On second day of the programme, Union Minister visited the Government Higher Secondary School Garhi wherein Principal, staff members, students and NCC Cadets including general public of the area extended warm welcome to the Union Minister.

Dr Ranjan inaugurated three rooms in High School Rown, three in Higher Secondary School Ramnagar under Samagra Shiksha and eight rooms in High School Bupp under State Capex Budget. The Union Minister along with other dignitaries had a round of exhibition and showed his keen interest in different models displayed by students of different educational institutions in the District. Over 42 exhibits were displayed by 11 different education zones of District Udhampur.

While inspecting the exhibition, the Union Minister appreciated the collective efforts made by different educational institutions and got feedback about their exhibits. He urged the students to come up with more innovations thus helping the nation become self reliant.

The Union Minister also interacted with national and state level teacher awardees.

He appreciated the teachers who have been conferred best teacher award at national district and Zonal level. He reiterated that last year , a teacher from district Udhampur Mr. Sunil Kumar (Teacher GMS Jakhar) was felicitated as ‘best teacher’ at National level for his outstanding contribution in the field of education and this year also three teachers from district Udhampur and eleven teachers from all the zones have been awarded the best teacher awards at district and zonal level respectively. He appreciated the all the teachers of the UT of J&K in general and Udhampur in particular, for extending their full cooperation during Covid-19. In addition to this, their hard work in increasing enrollment and reducing dropout rate by creating awareness in the masses is highly commendable.

DDC Chairperson, Lal Chand, Principal Secretary School Education Department, Bishwajit Kumar Singh, Deputy Commissioner, Udhampur Indu Kanwal Chib, SSP, Sargun Shukla, Director School Education Department Jammu, Dr Ravi Shankar Sharma, Project Director Samagra Shiksha, Deep Raj, ADDC, Kanta Devi and other district officers of various departments besides Principals of various education institutions attended the programme.

Meanwhile, the Union Minister also interacted with meritorious students of District Udhampur. While distributing mementoes and certificates among the meritorious students, Dr Ranjan advised the students to give priority to education, dream big and work hard with dedication and determination to achieve the desired goals of their lives. The Union Minister also distributed school bags among the drop out students on the occasion.

While addressing the gathering, the Union Minister observed that District Udhampur is number one activated district in the country that implemented various centrally sponsored schemes launched by the GOI. He said that education is the back bone of nation because it is a potent weapon of social change. He added that the education policy of a country should produce law abiding and patriotic citizens. In this connection, the government has formulated the New Education Policy 2020 which is a milestone in the history of free India, he said. It is skill based and flexible and lays due focus on developing critical thinking and practical skills and aims at bringing much needed reforms in school curriculum and pedagogy which help the learners to develop positive attitude and gain employment.

The Minister complimented teachers for their wonderful job and assured the UT Government that the Central government is committed to extend every possible help to achieve the cherished objectives. All these activities performed by these finest minds of the School Education department of J&K, have enriched the lives of the children who are the future custodians of our country, the Minister added.