Education Minister I.D. Dhiman, while speaking in the Conference of Education Ministers of all States at New Delhi raised a demand of sanctioning ‘Distance Allowance’ to students in Himachal Pradesh keeping in view the difficult geographical conditions of the State so that students did not find difficulty in continuing their studies. He said that such allowance would not only facilitate students but also strengthen primary education in the State.
Education Minister said that the State had emerged ‘Best State’ in education sector due to constructive efforts and farsighted policies of the State Government. He said that posts of teachers have been filled up in remote areas so that children were not deprived of education and added that vacant posts of teachers were less than 3 percent in the State and efforts were being made to fill them soon.
I.D. Dhiman said that the State had achieved the target of universal enrolment at primary level and 99.4 percent children were enrolled in schools in the State. He said that the State Government was making efforts to make the State ‘Education Hub’ and making all out efforts to provide quality education to the students at their doorsteps by opening various educational institutions providing higher vocational education. He said that the literacy rate of the State had increased to 83.78 percent and female literacy rate was 76.06 percent. He said that the State had made notable achievements in providing school facilities to the students within specified radius, enrolment and checking dropout rate.
Minister said that free school uniform was being provided to students from 1st to 10th standards under ‘Atal School Uniform Yojna’ from this academic session. He urged for adequate resources for opening community colleges in industrial areas and also requested for exemption in grant disbursing on Centre-State 90:10 ratio on the analogy of northern-eastern States.
Education Minister also requested for sanctioning 200 new schools in addition to present 25 vocational schools for strengthening vocational education at school level. He said that the State Government endorsed the recommendations of Ramasami Committee in principle in respect of joint entrance examination for engineering programmes in centrally funded technical institutions.
