NEW DELHI: The Centre and the states have come together to launch ‘Operation Digital or White Board’ in schools across India, Union Minister of Human Resources Development Prakash Javadekar announced on Monday.
A resolution to this effect was passed in the 65th meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE), the apex advisory body on education whose members include state education ministers, various Central ministers, 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 to the tune of `300 crore have been collected from six districts to install 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 added.
In another development, a memorandum of understanding was signed between the ministry and the Jammu and Kashmir education department to converge the syllabus followed in state education board affiliated schools with that of the CBSE and to introduce the NCERT books.
“This exercise is to expose students in the state to the content that is being taught in rest of the country. We will also hold massive student exchange programmes in which 9,000-10,000 school students from Jammu and Kashmir will be sent to other parts of the country on educational trips and vice-versa,” Javadekar said.
More and more schools in the state are being urged to get affiliated with the CBSE, state education minister Atlaf Bhukhari said.
The MoU between the Centre and the state comes a few days after Army chief General Bipin Rawat said last week that schools, along with social media, were contributing to the radicalisation of the youth in Kashmir.
“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!” Rawat said.
“The basic problem lies there, the way the education system in government schools in J&K has been corrupted,” the Army chief said. He added that the pattern of education in the state needed to be reviewed.