Manipur Education Minister Thounaojam Basanta Kumar on Monday announced that the Centre has sanctioned Rs 5 crore for opening a Command and Control Centre for state-level monitoring and tracking field-level academic and non-academic activities and to monitor and improve the performance of both teaching and non-teaching staff.
With this, Manipur will have facilities for monitoring not only the attendance of the staff but also how the teachers are engaging with the students and how the students are being taught, he said.
The Education minister was speaking during a valedictory function of the four-day state-level Science, Mathematics and Environment Exhibition, 2021-22 organised on the theme ‘technology and toys’ by Science Unit of the department of Education (S) under the auspices of NCERT, New Delhi at Johnstone Higher Secondary School, Imphal.
He said that a centralised monitoring mechanism will be set up to monitor the activities.
Basanta Kumar said in the remote and hill areas, there are many school teachers who are working with full dedication. The mechanism will help in recognising their efforts as well, he added.
He further said that the Education (S) director has visited Gujarat and familiarised with the model being implemented there.
The education minister also announced that the IT Company ‘Infosys’ will provide infrastructures and technologies worth Rs 25 crore to enhance digital learning across schools in the state. The state will ink a memorandum of understanding with the company positively within next week in this regard, he added.
He further emphasised the importance of education in stimulating development. He said that Japan rose to become a powerful nation after the country in the 1900s, allocated 80 per cent of its total budget for education.
The budget for education in Manipur is low at only 9 per cent, he said. Even in Delhi the budget for education is 25 per cent, he further said, adding that a systematic education with adequate financial investments will go a long way in ushering in development.
He further said that almost all the government schools have shortages of teachers and assured that the government will initiate measures to make up for the shortages at the earliest. “Education should not only be about producing position holders. Everyone should be encouraged to have basic education and dropout rate should be brought to the minimum. To facilitate all these, the government will be upgrading the government schools,” he announced, adding that it is high time to bring back the pride in the teaching profession.
He said that the government is also eyeing to introduce a school mentorship programme where eminent personalities adopt, not financially, a government school in his/her locality to encourage the students to become good human beings.
The education minister also distributed awards to the best exhibitors of the competition. The best exhibit award was won by Konjengbam Silky of Sacred Heart Higher Secondary School, Imphal East for her model ‘Solar Loom’. The second best exhibit was conferred to ‘Dual Charcoal Heater and Ice Cube Water Cooler’ developed by Irashini Laiphrakpam of Diligent Public School, Bishnupur while Soubam Vivekananda of Brilliant Academy, Thoubal won the third best exhibit prize for his exhibit ‘Phouhum – solar winnowing machine’.
Consolation prizes and best teacher guide awards were also handed over to the winners during the function.
Altogether, 67 exhibitors including 26 males and 41 females from 38 schools took part in the state level exhibition. It is said that the shortlisted 15 exhibitors, who won the top 3 prizes and consolation prizes will be recommended to NCERT for participation in the national level exhibition.
