By OUR STAFF REPORTER
DEHRADUN, 28 Apr: Union Human Resources Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ today held a video conference with the education ministers of all the states. School Education Minister of Uttarakhand, Arvind Pandey also participated in the video conference.
On this occasion, Nishank said that the benefit of mid-day meals would be made available to the students through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) even during holidays in schools. He disclosed that the Centre had sanctioned an amount of Rs 957 crores for this. It may be recalled that under the present rules, the students are not getting any benefit of mid-day meals during the vacations.
Uttarakhand Education Minister Arvind Pandey informed participants that classes for various subjects were being conducted in the state on Doordarshan (DD Uttarakhand). Students from the state were making full use of these classes, he claimed.
He urged the Union Human Resource Development Minister to direct the telecom companies to improve net connectivity in remote areas so that online classes could proceed smoothly in the entire state. He thanked Nishank for initiating a 4-week course from class 1 to class 8, saying that this would greatly facilitate the middle schools and children during the lockdown in learning their lessons and in understanding important subjects.
After the video conference, Pandey instructed Secretary, Education, R Meenakshisundaram to strictly ensure that private schools in the entire state including those in Dehradun, Haridwar, Nainital and Udham Singh Nagar adhered to the directions issued by government. He further directed Meenakshisundaram to take strict action against the private schools that did not comply with the orders, andalso against the schools pressurising parents to deposit school fee of their wards during the lockdown. He noted that some schools were trying to increase the school fees for the coming session despite the orders against this and asked the Secretary to take strict action against such schools.
Pandey also sought a report on the District Education Officers and other related officials who had failed to get schools to essentially introduce NCERT books for the students. Notices would be issued to such officers and action taken against them. Secretary R Meenakshisundaram and Dr Mukul Kumar Sati were also present on the occasion.
