School of Excellence | 31 Jul 2021

Why in News

• On July 31, 2021, Chief Minister Hemant Soren took a concrete measure towards providing quality education to the students of Jharkhand by converting government schools into 'Schools of Excellence'.

Key Points

• As per the vision of the Chief Minister, almost 5,000 government-run schools will be transformed into modern education facilities. It is aimed that by the start of the 2022-23 academic session, 80 district-level schools of excellence would be ready to cater to almost 2,00,000 students from across the state.
• The government aims to make 80 district level schools of excellence before the session 2022-23, 329 block schools before the 2023-24 session and over 4,000 panchayat level schools before the 2024-25 session as schools of excellence.
• In the first phase, the proposed 80 schools across all the districts of the State are being transformed into ‘School of Excellence’.
• The government has planned to make all the ‘Schools of Excellence’ of the world-class education system. The school will have other facilities like an uninterrupted power supply, a clean environment and a smartboard. These schools are being developed on the model of private schools.
• Earlier, due to lack of sanitation and lavatory facilities at schools, the drop-out rate of girls from schools was high. To address this issue the government has planned to equip all the school premises with separate lavatory facilities for both girls and boys.
• A dedicated language lab will be set up in these model schools to improve learning outcomes and it will also be used as a review mechanism tool.
• With the help of premier institutes of the country, teachers deputed at ‘School of Excellence' will be provided with focused training as per the National & International Standards.
• School of Excellence will cater to students from pre-primary level till the 12^th standard. The scheme will benefit approximately 15 lakh children from across the state.