SPEECH OF HON’BLE GOVERNOR PUNJAB AND ADMINISTRATOR, UT CHANDIGARH, SHRI BANWARILAL PUROHIT

SPEECH OF HON’BLE GOVERNOR PUNJAB AND ADMINISTRATOR, UT CHANDIGARH, SHRI BANWARILAL PUROHIT ON THE OCCASION OF 1.BRIEF PRESENTATION AND RELEASE OF NAAC REPORT” ANALYSIS OF ACCREDIATION REPORTS OF UT CHANDIGARH 2. BRIEF PRESENTATION AND LAUNCH “ RUPANTAR ENDEAVOURS” BY SRI AUROBINDO SOCIETY 3. DISTRIBUTION OF TABLETS TO SCHOOL OF SCHOOLS OF CHANDIGARH DONATED BY M/S INFOSYS 4. RELAY ON PM-e-VIDYA CHANNEL AT PUNJAB RAJ BHAVAN, CHANDIARH ON NOVEMBER 14, 2022 AT 10.30 AM

My heartiest greetings, best wishes and blessings to all the children on the occasion of Children's Day.

Today is the birth anniversary of India’s first Prime Minister, Pt Jawaharlal Nehru. Some of you must be aware that Pt. Nehru, laid down the founding principles of Chandigarh.

This City is a product of Nehru’s vision and the immaculate planning of Le Corbusier .

There could not have been a better day to celebrate this propitious day than getting together on a single platform and commemorating Education.

I am happy that on such an auspicious day, we are having an intellectual feast for our budding learners, the future of our nation.

We have just witnessed the Release of NAAC report, launch of Rupantar endeavours by Aurobindo Society, distribution of tablets to various schools by Infosys and have had a brief of PM-e-Vidya Channel.

All these endeavours truly speak of the high educational standards of our city beautiful both at the Higher Education and at School Level.

Chandigarh has made considerable progress in the education sector over the past few decades and it has emerged as one of the main educational hubs in the region.

Friends,

The progress and advancement of people and society largely depend on the development of education, especially higher education.

Higher education needs to be designed in such a way that it can produce competent, responsible and civilized persons who can serve the state and people.

The Department of Higher Education of the Government of Chandigarh is currently engaged in bringing world class opportunities of higher education and research to the country so that Indian students have easy access to the international higher educational forum. But, it is pertinent to identify sustainable practices within the higher education ecosystem and ensure that key stakeholders get the best educational experience .

While visualizing a revolutionary and progressive higher education landscape revisions, resdesigns and restructuring across the higher education ecosystem suggested in the NAAC Quality analysis report will assist institutes in providing a quality student centric and holistic experience to learners .

I congratulate Director, NAAC and his dedicated team, the external experts who have put in sincere efforts for bringing our the “Analysis of Accreditation reports of UT Chandigarh”, complete with suggestions for further action for all the stakeholders who are desirous of bringing in a quality transformation in the portals of higher education.

I am sure that these suggestions will help in defining the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges faced by the Higher Education Institutions of Chandigarh and prepare them better for fulfilling Vision 2040.

Talking of Sri Aurobindo Society, your Rupantar endeavours is a brilliant initiative aiming transformation in teaching – learning process, making it joyful and engaging for the learners.

With the vision to engage and empower all the stake holders of education, you have initiated four projects: Auro PBL, Project Inclusion, Auro Scholar and Competency Based Learning in 36 government schools of Chandigarh .

We appreciate your support to bridge the gap between the present state of learning outcomes to what is required by undertaking major reforms as envisaged in National Education Policy 2020.

Similarly, it is heart-warming to mention thatInfosys Chandigarh, Arpan Trust & Kachi Sadak Foundation have been running multiple Education reform programs like Paathshala Project, Kilkaari Project and others in collaboration with Education Department and Samagra Shiksha, Chandigarh .

The key objective of these programs is to eradicate knowledge gap in elementary sections of schools and to set up quality learning spaces for pre-primary education. So far, 22,000 + students, 200+ teachers and 300+ Anganwadi workers have benefitted through these programs .

Today, they are further supporting Education Department to enhance Digital Education and Learning in the Schools by providing 400 digital tablets which will be used by 27 schools. The students will use these tablets to learn interactive online courses.

We have just had a brief of the PM eVidya, an initiative of our Hon’ble Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi Ji as part of AtmaNirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan. The Government of India took this initiative to support educational activities and help the children and teachers to continue the teaching activity during the school closure at the time of pandemic.

The 12 e-Vidya TV Channels are based on the line ofOne Class-One Channel, for classes 1 to 12 and telecast curriculum-based educational content related to the respective classes.

This I believe, is useful especially for the learners of those remote areas where stable internet is not available.

The National Education Policy, 2020 has also addressed the digital divide and given the fact that there still persists a substantial section of the population whose digital access is highly limited , the existing mass media, such as television, radio, and community radio will be extensively used for telecast and broadcasts .

Such educational programmes will be made available 24/7 in different languages to cater to the varying needs of the student population.

I am sure that these eVidya channels, available free of cost on all the Dish Televisions will aid an additional mentor to all the students, specifically around 1.5 lakh students studying in the Govt Schools of UT, Chandigarh.

An additional benefit is that all thestudents will be swayed away from the culture of rote learning as is largely present today.

As I wind up, I am reminded of a beautiful quote: “ The greatest gifts you can give your children are the roots of responsibility and wings of independence .” This goes for all the Principals, teachers, mentors and stakeholders of education.

For all the children, I once again wish you all a very Happy Children’s Day. Work hard, stay motivated, make thebest possibleutilisation of all the resources that come your way,understand your strengths andwork towards improvement of the same,realise your weaknesses and make all possible efforts to put them at bay, respect the value system of our Indian Culture and have faith in whatever you do, success will surely be yours .

I congratulate all the stakeholders for such praiseworthy efforts andinvestments in the most promising avenue, the students, and this will definitely reap fruitful dividends, evitably visible in the times to come, a step towards making our country Sashakt Bharat, Samridh Bharat, Atishyoktipoorn Bharat.

Thank you,

Jai Hind.