An official team from the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) is on a week-long tour in Kashmir to assess the performance indicators in education sector in the “aspirational districts”: Baramulla and Kupwara.
The two districts in north Kashmir have been selected for the “aspirational districts programme” of NITI Aayog launched by Prime Minister of India (PMO) in January 2018.
The team headed by special secretary MHRD will assess eight performance indicators including the transaction from the primary to the upper primary schools and from the upper primary to the secondary and the senior secondary levels.
The team will be assessing the female literacy rate in the twin districts from the age group of 15 years. “The team will also assess the availability of functional girls’ toilets and functional drinking water facilities in the government schools,” an official said who is coordinating the visit of the MHRD team.
Meanwhile, as per the official information, around 391 government schools have dysfunctional toilets in Baramulla district while as out of 210 high and higher secondary schools only nine are without electricity facility.
“However, most of the middle and the primary schools are without electricity particularly in far off areas,” an official said.
The team is also assessing availability of text books in schools within one month of beginning of the academic session and availability of electricity in secondary schools in the aspirational districts.
“Baramulla and Kupwara were declared aspirational districts on the basis of national achievement survey conducted by NCERT wherein performance of these two districts was found poor in the education sector,” an official said.
The team which is on visit to Baramulla district is presently assessing availability of basic facilities in schools of Uri area of the district.
“The team is visiting the schools of the district to ascertain whether the department is complying with Right to Education (RTE) specified Pupil Teacher Ratio (PTR) in schools,” the official said, adding that the main focus of the team is on learning outcomes of class 3rd, 5th and 8th class students