Chief Minister Thakur Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu today launched the ‘International Tour for Teachers’ programme from the hotel Peterhoff. In the first batch, 102 teachers selected from across the state were being sent on a five-day tour to Singapore on February 24. The Chief Minister also provided foreign tour kits to the selected teachers. On March 15, the second batch of 98 teachers would be sent on tour abroad.
The Chief Minister said that during their exposure visit abroad, they would get an opportunity to be familiar of new technologies in the education sector besides being acquainted with new methods of teaching and education which would ensure better coordination between teachers and students. Himachal’s ranking has adversely lowered to 18th position in terms of providing qualitative education due to lack interest of the previous government.
The present government was making every possible effort to improve the standard of education, so that the students could become competent to meet the future challenges. He said that the Rajiv Gandhi Day-Boarding Schools being opened in the state were a unique initiative towards providing qualitative education and in the coming ten years, these would emerge as the best schools, where along with education, all other adequate facilities would be available.
The Chief Minister said that from the next academic session, English medium would be introduced from class first in government schools. He said that the vision of self-reliant Himachal has been presented in the second budget of the congress government, which would yield positive results in the next few years. Himachal will move forward on the path of progress with new policies and few tough decisions which will be fruitful in times to come.
He said that the state government has announced four percent dearness allowance to the employees. Old pension has also been restored, benefiting lakhs of government employees. Not only this, the state government has announced to provide LTC facility to the state employees at least twice during their service period from the next financial year. Education Minister Rohit Thakur said that today was a historic day as the first batch of teachers were paying exposure visit abroad. This will give teachers an opportunity to learn new methods of education.
He said that since the formation of the present government, concrete efforts were being made to improve the quality of education. The state government is filling the vacant posts in the education department on priority basis, so that quality education can be ensured in government schools, he remarked. Assembly Deputy Speaker Vinay Kumar, Chief Parliamentary Secretary Ashish Butail, Principal Advisor to Chief Minister (IT and Innovation) Gokul Butail, Education Secretary Rakesh Kanwar, Deputy Commissioner Anupam Kashyap, State Project Director Samagra Shiksha Rajesh Sharma, Director Higher Education Amarjeet Sharma and others dignitaries were present on the occasion.
