Uttarakhand State PCS

• 13 May 2023

Smart School Smart Block' Program

Why in News?

On 11 May 2023, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami inaugurated the 'Smart School Smart Block' program at the auditorium located at Goralchod in Champawat district of the state.

Key Points

• New dimensions will be achieved in the field of education through the 'Smart School Smart Block' program in the state. This step taken in the direction of making Champawat an ideal district is also a good initiative for ideal Uttarakhand.
• This work of providing modern education to the person standing at the last end of the society is being done with the help of Sampark Foundation and the government.
• This partnership of the State Government and Sampark Foundation is an effort for the betterment of education to present an innovative and first of its kind study program in government schools of the state.
• The 'Smart Schools Smart Blocks' program aims to improve the learning outcomes of 5484 children by training 274 teachers from 137 schools in Champawat block of Champawat district in the state.
• After successful implementation for 100 days in Champawat block, the program will be extended to Khirsu block of Pauri district in a time bound manner.
• Sampark Foundation brings together its entire range of innovative learning resources under the 'Smart Schools Smart Blocks' programme. These resources are in line with the state syllabus & SCERT which will completely transform the process of studying in the classroom and will help in making it convenient.
• The resources provided by ‘Sampark’ for this program include TV sets for each school, Sampark TV devices, Sampark Smart Shala application, Maths and English kit with Sampark Didi audio box, 500 lesson plans, 1100 lesson videos, 450 Activities with TLM, Class and subject wise 2000 worksheets, 3000 questions for evaluation in the format of KBC Sampark Didi's questions, videos of songs & experiments on science topics for classes 6 to 8 and a resource book for teachers.
• Sampark FLN TV is an affordable plug & play device for classes 1 to 5, which consists of an Android set top box and a remote. It is very easy to handle & operate where it transforms a normal television into an interactive and engaging learning platform, making the classroom a smart classroom.
• The Sampark team will also train educational functionaries at the district, block, & cluster levels to monitor the use of TLMs and resources in schools & classrooms.

The Chief Minister Approved Several Proposals to Help Journalists

Why in News?

According to the information given by the Information & Public Relations Department of Uttarakhand on 11 May 2023, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has organized a committee for 'Journalist Welfare Fund' and 'Chief Minister Journalist Samman Pension Yojana' for financial assistance to the state's journalists & their dependents.

Key Points

• It is worth mentioning that in the meeting of the committee on 29 April 2023, on the applications received from the Journalist Welfare Fund for the distressed journalists of Uttarakhand & their dependents, a total financial assistance of Rs 45 lakh was given by the committee to the dependents of 09 deceased journalists, in which a proposal was made to provide financial assistance of Rs 55 lakh to each dependent family, which has now been approved by the Chief Minister.
• For the medical treatment of journalists suffering from serious and incurable diseases, a proposal was made to provide a total financial assistance of Rs 20 lakh to 05 journalists and to provide financial assistance of Rs 72293 to one case from Chief Minister's Relief Fund, on which the approval has now been given by the Chief Minister.
• Under the 'Chief Minister Journalist Samman Pension Yojana', the committee agreed on the proposal to allow pension on 03 cases fulfilling the prescribed qualification/eligibility, which has also been approved by the Chief Minister.
• The committee found 06 cases incomplete under the provisions mentioned in the rules, in respect of which it was suggested to be given an opportunity to present the records once again.