Jammu, Jan 22: Principal Secretary, School Education, Alok Kumar on Sunday said the PM SHRI schools will deliver quality teaching for the cognitive development of students and will strive to create and nurture holistic and all-round individuals equipped with key 21st-century skills.

Chairing a maiden meeting of the Steering/Monitoring Committee for the final selection of PM SHRI schools from across the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir, the Principal Secretary said that rigorous exercise needs to be done as the PM SHRI schools will showcase all components of the National Education Policy 2020, act as role model schools and shall also offer mentorship to other schools in their vicinity.

The first-of-its-kind PM SHRI scheme was launched on Teacher’s Day 2022 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which is also being implemented in Jammu & Kashmir.

Project Director Samagra Shiksha, Deep Raj (State/UT Nodal Officer, PM SHRI), Directors School Education, Jammu and Kashmir Dr. Ravi Shanker and Tassaduq Hussain, Director Finance SED, Iftikhar Hussain, Special Secretaries SED, Kanta Devi, Nasir Wani and Anu Behl and Joint Director Planning Parshotam Kumar participated in the meeting.  

While deliberating on the issue, Alok Kumar said that PM SHRI schools will provide an inclusive and joyful school environment that takes care of the diverse background, multilingual needs and different academic abilities of children and makes them active participants in their own learning process as per the vision of NEP 2020.

He reiterated that the PM SHRI schools will be developed as green schools and shall act as laboratories for the effective implementation of NEP, 2020. “Besides, it will incorporate environment-friendly aspects like solar panels and LED lights, nutrition gardens with natural farming, waste management, plastic free, water conservation and harvesting, climate change related hackathon and awareness generation to adopt a sustainable lifestyle,” he said, adding, “Pedagogy adopted in these schools will be more experiential, holistic, integrated, play/toy-based and enjoyable.”

The Principal Secretary intimated that the selection of schools at the UT/State level is based on the assessment of the resources available and their effectiveness in terms of availability, adequacy, appropriateness and utilisation for each of the domains set in the guidelines of the scheme. The identified gaps will be filled in a systematic and planned manner, he said.

Project Director Samagra Shiksha apprised the meeting that Pradhan Mantri School for Rising India (PM SHRI) is a Centrally-sponsored scheme for the development and up-gradation of more than 14500 schools across the country by strengthening selected existing schools managed by Central, State, UT governments and local bodies.

He informed that the Department of School Education and Literacy, Union Ministry of Education, has identified 4747 schools in J&K through UDISE + data. Among them 4648 schools applied through the online challenge portal while 2159 schools passed as per the benchmarks set by MoE, he said. However, after verification at the district level, only 1241 schools were approved for state-level verification/selection. He also informed that 722 schools are to be selected in two years wherein the portal for self-applying shall be opened four times a year.

Linkage with Sector Skill Councils and local industry for enhancing employability and providing better employment opportunities will also be explored, he said.

Following threadbare discussion, 435 schools out of 1241 shortlisted schools were recommended by the State/UT level committee to MoE for consideration under the PM SHRI scheme in the first phase. Deputy Director (P) Bilal Rashid, Coordinator Ashwani Kumar and all the Chief Education Officers also attended the meeting.