Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Thursday asked the state Education Department to consider teaching foreign languages to students and raise their employability across the globe. Emphasising the need to offer an opportunity to students keen on learning foreign languages as optional subjects in government schools, he asked the School Education Department to work out modalities to enable students to learn foreign languages like Chinese, Arabic and French.
These languages could be instrumental in improving their chances of employability across the globe, the Chief Minister was quoted as saying in an official statement. During an interaction with state's school teachers, Singh said, Though Punjabi is our mother tongue and English is already being taught in schools, the additional knowledge of foreign languages would help our students to excel in their career.
Sharing his experience about people's resilience and spirit to do something new, Singh said long back while travelling in Kapurthala district, he noticed a signboard showing way to a teaching facility for the Italian language. He said, This incident reveals that our people, especially the youths, are keen to learn foreign languages to settle abroad and such an initiative of the Education Department would help them realise their aspirations.
Underlining the need to motivate students to take up sports as a character-building exercise, the CM also directed Education Minister Vijay Inder Singla to explore the possibility of developing playgrounds in schools. Sports do not only help one develop one's overall personality but also imbibe the leadership qualities of self-discipline and sportsman spirit amongst them, he pointed out.
Singh also congratulated teachers and the entire staff of the School Education Department for making Punjab the number one state in the country in the Performance Grading Index (PGI) 2019-20 released by the government of India. It is a matter of pride that Punjab has achieved this rare feat, which is the outcome of teachers' collective efforts, their hard work, dedication and sincerity, he said. He also urged the Education Department to maintain this position for times to come.
He lauded some of the path-breaking initiatives of the Education Department, including online teacher transfer policy, smart school policy, pre-primary education, digital education and a special cadre of teachers working in border areas. These measures have led to a remarkable improvement in the quality of education in Punjab, he said. It is also reflected from the fact that nearly 5. 6 lakh students have shifted from private to government schools with a 29 per cent increase in enrolment during the last four years, he added. This also testifies to the parents reposing their faith in government schools again, the CM said.
Education Minister Singla assured the CM that the department would closely work with the digital platforms offering the facility of online courses in foreign languages to enable our students to learn foreign languages of their choice. On the provision of playgrounds in schools, Singla said a budgetary provision for 250 playgrounds has already been made.
He said Punjab is not only amongst the best five states and Union territories but has also emerged as the topper by jumping to Grade I++ in 2019-20 from Grade II in 2018-19. On the occasion, several teachers including Pooja Sharma from Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar and Jaspreet Singh from Sangrur interacted with the chief minister and shared their visions on bringing improvement in school education.
