Days after slamming Gen Rawat, J&K inks pact with Centre for ‘mainstreaming children, using education as tool for normalcy’

JAMMU: Barely two days after Education Minister Syed Altaf Bukhari slammed Army Chief Gen Bipin Rawat for suggesting revam in education system in Jammu and Kashmir, the state's School Education department today inked an agreement with the Centre that is aimed at overhauling the syllabi and encouraging more schools to get CBSE affiliations.
Broadly bordering on the contours outlined by Gen Rawat, the agreement was signed today in New Delhi by J&K School Education Secretary Farooq Ahmed Shah and Union Human Resource Development Secretary Anil Swarup in presence of Syed Altaf Bukhari.
Swarup's statement after signing the agreement echoed what Gen Rawat had said last week. "The government is engaging with the state to mainstream children and use education as a tool to bring normalcy. We have travelled some distance in this".
Attracting critical reaction from Bukhari and a number of other political leaders in the state, Rahat had said last week that schools in Jammu and Kashmir were spreading a "disinformation campaign" and called for a revamp of the education system in the state. "The other issue is the madrassas and masjids - what is being informed to them (the students) or incorrectly informed to them is through the madrassas and masjids. I think some controls have to be exercised there and that is what we are looking at," he added.
Sharply reacting to Gen Rawat's statement, the Education Minister had said that the Army Chief is not an educationist and since education is a state subject, the government knows how to run schools. Bukhari had further said, "there are two flags in the state, we have J&K constitution and India's constitution also. Every school has a state map as it is needed to teach about the state."
Even as an official spokesman of the state government said that "as per the MoU, for next three years MHRD would extend all sorts of assistance to enable the state to improve school education in terms of infrastructure development, teaching learning methodology through extensive capacity development and promote allied activities like promotion of student to student contact with other states by sponsoring tours from here to other parts of country and vice-versa", but Swarup was much clearer on the agreement. He said that the Centre and the State would use education as a tool to bring normalcy to the state, something Gen Rawat suggested.
The agreement was signed on the sidelines 65th Cabinet Advisory Board of Education (CABE) in New Delhi.
Swarup said the Jammu and Kashmir government had also agreed to look at the NCERT curriculum for convergence and more schools from Jammu and Kashmir were seeking CBSE affiliation.
The two governments have planned a number of measures, including an exchange programme involving 9,000 to 10,000 students from the state from January 18 and setting up ICT and digital platforms in the state's schools.
The MoU titled "School Education Transformation Roadmap" is a joint study of the Centre and the state government.
The roadmap will be implemented in three years with the goal of bringing a major improvement in learning levels of students by 2020. It comprises a comprehensive framework, including human resource management to quality interventions.
The roadmap has identified high priority areas, including restructuring of state teacher education institutes, created integrated data management information system and curriculum revision.
According to Swarup, the government will identify special districts for intensive engagements with students. Both the governments will also undertake exchange programmes wherein 9,000 to 10,000 students from the state will travel to other parts of the country and vice versa.
The initiative will start from January 18 and the first batch of students from the state will also get to witness the Republic Day celebrations in Delhi.
"This is not a one-time exercise. The other initiative is to set ICT and digital technology in the schools of the state. For that we will also use solar energy platform," said Swarup.