Uttarakhand govt to open residential schools in all districts

Dehradun, May 11: In order to provide quality education to children, all thirteen districts in Uttarakhand will have residential schools in their most backward regions by the end of the year, Chief Minister Harish Rawat has said.

'Rajiv Gandhi Abhinav Awasiya School' would be opened in the least developed regions of 13 districts in the state where primary and junior high schools are facing closure due to less number of students, a government release quoted Rawat as saying, in a meeting with senior officials yesterday.

In order to provide quality education to students, the option of running schools in remote areas with help from private institutions would be pondered upon and the state government will provide land free of cost for the same, Rawat said.

The new schools will be built on the lines of 'Rajeev Gandhi Navodaya Vidyalaya' here, he said. Such schools will admit students from the schools that have been closed due to the less number of students in them, he said, adding the state government would bear their fees.

Many private educational institutions have submitted proposals for such schools, he said. Stating that poor education system is one of the reasons for migration from the mountainous regions in the state, he said the state government is trying to improve education scenario in these remote regions.

A policy would be carved out for investment in educational infrastructure in the mountainous region wherein the state government would provide land for infrastructure facility development, the Chief Minister said.

Directing the principal secretary of Department of Education and Planning to make a work plan to check migration from the remote mountainous region due to lack of education and health facility, he said another meeting in this regard would be held in the next 15 days.

PTI