Shimla, Feb 21 Himachal Pradesh Education Minister Rohit Thakur on Friday said the government would collaborate with UNESCO to strengthen quality, equitable and inclusive education for every child in the state.
He said the government would sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with UNESCO by exploring potential areas of collaboration to further reform the education system up to a higher level.
Chairing a meeting with a delegation from UNESCO here, the minister said education has always been a top priority for this hilly state which is quite evident from the fact that today the literacy rate of the state stands at more than 83 per cent, which was merely seven per cent at the time of attaining the statehood status in 1971.
"Although the quality of education has declined to some extent in the past, the government took major reforms to improve the education quality that has started showing encouraging results as is also evident in the recent national report," said the minister.
"The government has allocated around 20 per cent of its total budget for education, and this clearly shows its commitment to bringing qualitative changes in this vital sector."
Thakur said the government's vision is to provide quality education to the children studying in government schools in rural areas.
"For this purpose, the government is opening Rajiv Gandhi Day-Boarding Schools in a phased manner in every Assembly constituency, where all modern facilities will be available under one roof," he said.
The minister said the state has the highest learning levels and the educational reforms are being made as per the demand. He hoped that the long-term partnership with UNESCO would further strengthen these endeavours.
Secretary (Education) Rakesh Kanwar said instead of picking up a single individual teacher from different educational institutions, the entire teaching staff and administration of a particular institute should be imparted training so that they work as a team and could bring better results.
He said the state has good infrastructural facilities, a high enrollment rate and no gender gap at the elementary level. Besides, the state has universal reach, a good ecosystem in the educational institutions and vocational and technical education-based courses are also being run successfully across the state.
In the past two years, the government has undertaken a major exercise on consolidation of schools, he added. Programme Specialist and Chief of Education, Joyce Poan, said UNESCO is the leader in imparting education training and is looking forward to partnering with the government for five years to train teachers in a phased manner.
She said besides sharing experiences, exchange programmes would be undertaken up to the block level to improve the education's quality.
Special Project Director of Samagra Shiksha, Rajesh Sharma, presented the overview of the education in the state and said with the assistance of UNESCO the state is looking forward to transform the schools into hubs of innovation, sustainability and excellence.
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