Improving education in Kashmir, editorial 20 March 2023.

Improving education in Kashmir 

Education is the cornerstone of development. Jammu and Kashmir academic scenarios needed a much overhaul to make it reformative.

The pathbreaking interventions and concrete efforts by the government are transforming the educational scenario of Jammu and Kashmir.

The School Education Department has taken up several initiatives like reducing dropout ratio, increasing enrolment rate and others.

The whole nation is witnessing significant transformation in the education system with implementation of new National Education Policy. The policy has put special emphasis on engagement and involvement in both classroom as well as field study.

Notably, Mentorship Programme: Student Teacher Engagement for Educational Reinforcement (STEER) will revolutionize the school education system by identifying learning gaps and understanding the constraints being faced by the children, their capabilities besides providing the teachers an opportunity to bring changes in their teaching methods.

It is great development that 

Under this mentorship program, more than 21,000 schools have been covered and five lakh students have been mapped. Moreover, 40,000 teachers have been trained to mentor the students in 1:10 ratio.

Further, efforts are being made to improve the quality of school education and employment-oriented higher education through

the National Education Policy. Necessary changes have been made in the education system to cater to the human resource requirement of the fourth industrial revolution and digital economy of the twenty-first century.

Under the policy, Higher Education Council will ensure that colleges and universities become hub of research and innovation and contribute in developing a highly skilled national human capital.

The need of the hour is to make the education system of Jammu and Kashmir more sync with the needs of present times.