PANAJI
The Goa government on Thursday announced to establish ‘The Goa State School Standards Assessment and Accreditation Authority’ which will assess school educational institutions, with a view to ensuring that National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 is implemented in Goa to its full potential. The State is leading in implementation of NEP.
The BJP-led government that attaches importance to the education sector with the utmost seriousness has allocated Rs 3,243.40 crore towards the sector. Of this, school education has received the maximum allocation of Rs 2,288.33 cr, an increase of over four per cent.
The Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, who is also Minister for Education, announced that the School Quality Assessment and Accreditation Framework will be notified within the next six months.
“Today’s world is changing very rapidly and our education system needs to keep pace with these changes. Reducing the burden of notebooks and studies on the arms of a small child; My Government is committed to implementing a timely, progressive and enjoyable education system. The country’s new education policy envisages an education system that properly promotes the interests, abilities and skills of every student,” he said.
For higher education (Rs 553.77cr budget allocation), the government has proposed to establish a state-of-the-art talent development centre to provide world-class training to the faculty to take higher education to the next level.
The centre will have a state-of-the-art laboratory in science and mathematics, where classroom concepts are translated into hands-on experience-based teaching. The facility will set up with the help of the Indian Institute of Science.
As a step towards enhancing the economic status of the local communities, the government has proposed to encourage research on these communities for their development. For this, it has announced to introduce new 'Interdisciplinary Research Interventions Schemes (IRIS).
“This system will help local communities manage their resources more effectively and sustainably, helping to accelerate communities’ progress. Through this scheme, funding for research will be provided to interdisciplinary teams of researchers to work on a selected village or local community, and find viable recommendations and solutions for an identified local problem,” the CM said.
To provide lifelong learning and to give every individual the opportunity to continuously upgrade their educational qualifications, the government has decided to establish a full-fledged regional center of the Indira Gandhi National Open University at Farmagudi.
The technical education has got budget support of Rs 323.98 crore. The government has announced to continue with its ambitious Diamond Jubilee Government Investment Scheme (DJ- GIFT) for the coming financial year.
The government which speaks about creating skilled manpower has earmarked Rs 107 cr towards the skill development department.
The Chief Minister said that specialized and advanced skill-based courses in IT would be introduced in collaboration with the industry as per the needs of the local industry in order to raise the standards of all ITIs and attract mainstream students The course will involve industry experts to provide training.
The government also proposed to introduce Dual Certification Program in which a skill-based certificate will be awarded. Under this programme, skill-based courses will be offered to students in the general streams of Arts, Commerce and Science.
“I have seen the urgent need for continuous training of ITI trainers to enhance their own skills, therefore we will set up Institute of Training to train professional trainers of all government ITIs with the help of IIT, Goa, NIT Goa, BITS Goa, Goa Institute of Management and other renowned institutions of Trainers (IToT),” CM said.
