Jammu and Kashmir: New schools to come up in Zero Line areas

New school buildings are being constructed near the Zero Line in different parts of Jammu and Kashmir by the government. Uri and Chautali in Baramulla are some of the areas where construction is being carried out to ensure a better future for the children.

After an earthquake hit Uri in 2005, only a makeshift school has been in operation there for the last 17 years. Now, the Border Area Development Plan (BADP) under Samridh Seema Yojana is rebuilding the school. Similarly, the original building of the Chautali School, situated at the Zero Line across the fence, has been demolished and a new one is being raised at the cost of Rs 50 lakh, as per a report by ANI.

Two more new school buildings in the border areas of Sahoora and Lalmer are also coming up. They will be constructed at the cost of Rs 25 lakh each. The schools will have a state-of-art infrastructure and will house all classes from Kindergarten to Class XII. Atal Tinkering Laboratories (ATLs) are also proposed to be set up in the schools, as a part of the Atal Innovation Mission, to infuse scientific temper among the students. The District Administration of Baramulla has also promised 18 mini DIET (District Institute for Education and Training) centres in the district for capacity building of teachers and 115 ICT (Information Technology) laboratories in government schools, in Kindergarten classes as well, as per ANI.

Between October 27 to November 3, nearly 14,000 dropouts rejoined schools marking the conclusion of the fourth phase of the Back-to-Village (B2V) programme in Jammu and Kashmir, which is observed to be a monumental achievement of the administration. Capacity building and pedagogical skill upgradation of teachers working at the pre-primary level is also being stressed upon in Jammu and Kashmir, with the implementation of NEP 2020.

For this purpose, the Directorate of the Distance Education University of Kashmir is offering a one-year model pre-primary teacher training programme (DPPTT) drawn on the NEP framework. Untrained primary school teachers will have to compulsorily enrol for Diploma in this programme, as per ANI.