Education Minister Assures Support For Self-Reliant Madhya Pradesh

Education Minister Assures Support For Self-Reliant Madhya Pradesh

A web-seminar was held to deliberate on topics including education and health with subject experts from across the country for Madhya Pradesh as part of the ‘Atma Nirbhar Bharat' programme. Titled ‘Atma Nirbhar Madhya Pradesh – Health and Education', the webinar was inaugurated by Union Minister of Education Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank'. Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Shivraj Singh Chouhan; Chief Secretary, Madhya Pradesh Iqbal Singh Bains and Additional Secretary (Health and Nutrition) Niti Aayog Rakesh Sarwal also participated in the webinar.

The Education Minister while speaking on the webinar congratulated the Madhya Pradesh Government for responding to COVID-19 crisis by introducing multiple interventions across all sectors. Mr Pokhriyal assured the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh that “central institutions will be supported to meet the target of self-reliant MP”.

“During the current lockdown in wake of COVID-19, the School Education Department of Madhya Pradesh has proactively taken upon the task of ensuring that children do not lose out on any opportunity to learn and to continue their academic progress by providing access to tech-enabled learning sources,” said a statement from Ministry of Education.

Interventions during COVID-19

The Education Minister further said: “At the time of crises, education sector has taken this opportunity to plan several interventions, particularly in the area of adopting innovative curriculum and pedagogies, concentrating energies on the gap areas, being more inclusive and integrating technology at every stage, to usher in a new era of focussed investment in the human capital.”

Addressing the webinar, Mr Pokriyal spoke in length of the initiatives taken by the Ministry of Education, or MoE, during the COVID-19 pandemic. His address included mention of the food security allowances to school-going children, introduction of alternative calendars and release of PRAGYATA guidelines. The minister further said how numerous Kendriya Vidyalayas and Navodaya Vidyalayas are being used for the purpose of quarantining corona suspects, housing the migrant labourers and camping the temporary deployment of paramilitary forces.

“All the HEIs [higher education institutes] have come forward and contributed towards making Atmanirbhar Bharat solving various challenges that have come before us in the CoVID-19 pandemic. The premier institutes of the nation have come up with a myriad of innovative measures to tackle the pernicious situation which has made an unparalleled impact globally. From research to rescue, our HEIs have shown a great degree of responsibility by contributing in different dimensions to combat the CoVID-19 challenge. Hackathons such as Drug Discovery Hackathon, ‘Fight Corona IDEAthon' and Smart India Hackathon are being conducted,” Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank' added.

From the launch of COROSURE to making ventilators and from testing kits to producing masks and sanitisers, the vision of Atma Nirbhar Bharat has always been met by the institutions of the country.