Y.S. RANA : CHANDIGARH—FEB-5—Live in most unhygienic conditions in one of the biggest slums of Chandigarh, the children of lesser God can now look forward in widening of their awareness canvas as the Education Department of Chandigarh Administration will soon shift approximately 800 students of the slum presently studying in government high school, Sector 45 to the newly built smart school in Sector 50. They will hone their teaching skills, firm up their mental fibre and can lock horns with their counterparts of model schools.
Stating this to The India Post, Chanchal Singh, deputy director school education, chandigarh said that a smart school, second in the series, came up on an area approximately four acre comprising 28 class rooms in Sector 50. Built at a cost of Rs 60 lakh, it has ground plus two floors would be operationalized from April 1 next, he added. Every class rooms have been equipped with latest learning devices, he added.
He further stated that the Administration developed a visionary plan for the roll out of ‘smart school’ during the 11th Five Year Plan to convert some existing schools into smart schools and set up of four new smart schools by 2012 to leverage on all the ICT initiatives of the Administration.
Notably, all the new smart schools will come up in the Southern sectors of the city. Already four government model senior secondary schools have been converted into smart schools, stated Mr Singh. First smart school in Sector 53 has been functioning since last year. Another smart school in Sector 54 was all set to start and hopefully it would be started within 3-4 months. “Building is complete and necessary latest learning devices and infrastructure are being provided,” said he. Initially, the schools would be of Hindi Medium up to Class VIII. The department would seek permission from CBSE to start classes IX and X from the next academic, disclosed he.
While talking to DPI (Schools), Chandigarh, Upkar Singh confirmed the completion of the school building in all respect. The school would be inaugurated near start of the session and put to function with effect from April 1. He further stated that the initiative of the Administration was conceptualized with the objective of making learning enjoyable, integrating students with latest technology and preparing them for future challenges.
He further revealed that staff was being trained in e-content learning at the State Institute of Education (SIE), Sector 32, Chandigarh batch wise. “The e-content learning is strictly mapped to NCERT books and can be easily customized to any State boards.
The Chandigarh Administration in a bid to integrate e-teaching and learning methodologies in the education system, have initiated ‘smart school project’ in 2007. By 2012 four such schools have to be constructed. So far, one such school was inaugurated last year; one would be started from April 1 and third one would be put to function by May next. The last one such school would be come up in Sector 50, he said.
The officials revealed that school buildings in Sector 50-B, 50-C, 53-B, 54-A were being built at a cost of Rs 10.29 crore. He also said that education at the school level was in a transitional phase earlier and was now fast evolving courtesy to the introduction of latest technology in teaching.