Govt ropes in corporates to create Saksham classrooms in Gurugram

Gurugram: The poor state of education in government schools can be gauged from the fact the state was barely able to cross the pass percentage of 50 per cent in the recently-held board examinations. Now, to change the scenario, the Haryana government has teamed up with private players to create Saksham (Efficient) classrooms.

Under this scheme, the school students will be provided with tabs and imparted education through digital means. One model of such classroom was recently inaugurated in Kherki Dhaula government school in Gurugram. There are plans to provide free tabs and offer education through digital means in other government schools of Gurugram as well. Through this project, the officials are also planning to create a mechanism so that in the future primary school students of government schools may not have to carry school bags. A pilot study is being conducted by the department of education to see the feasibility of such a plan.

If successful, it will ensure thousands of primary students till class till class-5 getting rid of the heavy load of school bags. Besides project Saksham, various pilot studies on these lines, which were conducted in the past pilot studies, will be conducted in schools of Gurugram district and adjoining district of Nuh. To reduce the load of bags, there are plans to build shelves that will be built by the public agencies where the books of the students will be kept. It will also be ensured that the teachers will make their pupils do the homework on the school premises.

"On our part, to improve the education system in the government schools, this is one of the steps that have been undertaken. We want to start this experiment in the Southern Haryana districts led by Gurugram and gradually extend it to other parts of Haryana," said a senior official from the department of education.

The move comes at a time when most of the government schools in the district are grappling with crumbling infrastructure. The state government for long have been criticised for not bringing in major reforms to improve the education system in government institutions. The poor state of affairs in the government schools is resulting in most parents sending their children to private educational institutions.

Rising criticism has resulted in the government announcing a slew of measures to improve the education system in government schools of Gurugram. Recently, the government signed a pact with IIT-Delhi where primary and secondary students will be taught simple mathematics DVDs. This is the second major initiative taken by the state government to improve the state of education in its schools.

Earlier, a programme called project Zindagi was introduced in the schools to deal with the mental stress faced by the students.