Education among main thrust areas of Bengal: Mamata

Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee stated on National Education Day that education is one of the thrust areas of the state government.

In a tweet on Sunday, the Chief Minister stated: "Today is #NationalEducationDay. Education is one of the thrust areas of our govt in #Bangla."

She further stated in this connection: "In the last seven years, we have set up 23 new universities, 65 new colleges and many more are in the pipeline. My best wishes to all."

Banerjee also tweeted remembering Maulana Abul Kalam Azad on his birth anniversary. She stated in the tweet: "Remembering freedom fighter and well-known educationist Maulana Abul Kalam Azad on his birth anniversary. We have named the West Bengal University of Technology after him."

In the past seven years, the state government has taken a series of steps to improve the standard of education in the state. Starting from creating proper infrastructure across the state to bringing necessary changes in curriculum, several improvements have taken place in the past seven years.

It may be mentioned that 22 universities, including 10 private and 12 state-run, had come up in the state in the first six years of the Mamata Banerjee government and later, one more has come up taking the total number to 23. The Green University in Hooghly and the Biswa Bangla University in Bolpur are the two major projects taken up by the state government.

Setting up of Sister Nivedita University at New Town and that too in the year when her 150th birth anniversary

is being celebrated, is another

major move of the Mamata Banerjee government.

Setting up of the 23 universities is creating opportunities for more students to go for higher studies and it is of great help for the youths as they do not need to travel long distances to carry on with higher studies.

Besides higher studies, steps were taken to create better infrastructure for school level education as well. Stress was given so that children do not need to go too far for school. Under the project Sabuj Sathi, the Mamata Banerjee government has also distributed bicycles among students of classes IX, X, XI and XII.

Most importantly, introduction of the Kanyashree Prakalpa has helped in bringing down the dropout rate in schools. The state government has also bagged the United Nations Public Service Award for Asia Pacific in Netherlands in 2017 for the project, thanks to which more than 50 lakh girls were benefitted.