NEW DELHI: The Union human resources development minister Prakash Javadekar on Monday announced that the Centre, along with all the states in the country has passed a resolution to launch “Operation digital or white board” in the schools across India.
The resolution was passed in the 65th meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Education, the apex advisory body on education whose members include state education minister, various other Central ministers and senior bureaucrats and several educationists.
“Some 50-60 years ago, the nation took a pledge to have blackboard in every classroom but with the changing times we need smart classrooms and now we need electronic boards in our schools,” Javadekar said.
He cited the example of Maharashtra where donations of Rs 300 crore have been collected from six districts to instal digital board in schools. “It’s a novel idea and will take years to fructify but a goal has been set today and we have to work in that direction,” the minister also added.
Also, a memorandum of understanding was signed between the ministry of HRD and Jammu & Kashmir state education department to converge the syllabus followed in state education board affiliated schools with that of the Central Board of Secondary Education and follow National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) Books.
“This exercise is to expose students in J & K to content being taught in rest of the country. We will also hold massive student exchange programmes in which 9-10000 school students from J &k will be sent to other parts of the country on educational trips and school kids from other parts will be sent to the state,” Javadekar said.
More and more schools in the state are also being urged to get affiliated with the CBSE, J & K education minister Atlaf Bhukhari said.
The MOU between the two parties comes a few days after the Armi chief Bipin Rawat, on the eve of Army day, had said last week that schools, along with social media, in J & K were contributing to the radicalisation of the youth.
“If you go to any Kashmir school you will find two maps — one of India and the other of J&K. Why should there be a separate map of J&K! Then there should be a map of every state. This leads children into believing that I am part of this country, but I also have a separate identity,” Rawat had said.
“The basic grassroot problem lies here, the way the education system in government schools in J&K has been corrupted,” Rawat had also said adding that the pattern of the education in the state needs to be reviewed.