By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 5 Oct: A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between the Department of Samagra Shiksha (Integrated Education) of Uttarakhand and Swiss Education Group, Switzerland, at the Secretariat here today. State Project Director, Samagra Shiksha, Banshidhar Tiwari and Executive Director of the Swiss Education Group, Hiraj Artinian, signed the MoU in the presence of Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami. The MoU is on providing training in the field of tourism and hospitality to the students of classes 9 to 12 in Uttarakhand. The Swiss Education Group will also assist in improving the vocational education curriculum for students in the state.
Speaking on the occasion, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami observed that this agreement will prove to be a milestone in the future for better training in the field of tourism and hospitality under vocational education to the children of classes 9 to 12 in the state. There is a lot of employment potential in both these sectors in Uttarakhand. By gaining proficiency through training in these areas, the students from the state will get many employment opportunities. Continuous efforts are being made by the state government to promote tourism, he emphasised. Many works are being done to promote religious, spiritual and adventure tourism as well as eco-tourism and wellness tourism in the state. The state is also receiving many proposals in the field of hospitality in view of a strong potential in the state in these sectors.
Dhami expressed gratitude to Abhay Das Maharaj for playing an important role in bringing about this agreement. It may be recalled that a discussion was held about four months ago between the Chief Minister and Abhay Das Maharaj for support to the state in this regard.
The CM further observed that lakhs of devotees visit Uttarakhand during the Chardham Yatra. The effort of the state government is to ensure that devotees and tourists come to the religious and tourist sites of Uttarakhand in large numbers throughout the year. For this, work is being done at a rapid pace on the Manaskhand Temple Mala Mission. Under this, work has been started by identifying 16 temples, which will be linked and renovated during the first phase.
Abhaydas Maharaj said that, to promote tourism, it is necessary to strengthen the hospitality sector. He said that Uttarakhand is the centre of spirituality. If Uttarakhand works on setting up spiritual centres in foreign countries, then there is a lot of employment potential in it.
Secretary, School Education, Ravinath Raman noted that this agreement has been signed for better training in the field of tourism and hospitality under vocational education for the students of classes 9 to 12. School children will be trained by the faculty of Swiss Education Group. In Switzerland, too, the school children of the state will be given a month’s training in these areas by the Group.
On this occasion, Additional Chief Secretary Radha Raturi, Surya Pratap Singh Bhati from Swiss Education Group, and Additional State Project Director, Samagra Shiksha, Dr Mukul Kumar Sati were also present.
